


Ascent of Lies

by TG_StarlightChronicles



Series: Starlight Chronicles [2]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Mirror Universe (Star Trek)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:15:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 28,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27389317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TG_StarlightChronicles/pseuds/TG_StarlightChronicles
Summary: It's six months after the Starlight was first launched. Away from her ship and stranded in the Mirror Universe, Admiral Fujita Diru needs to find her way back home through space and dimensions, rescuing the crew of the Green on her way. Danger closes in from all sudes when familiar figures are hunting her.
Relationships: Fernando Ramirez/Imzah Kishna, Fujita Diru/James Kirk, Mirror Fujita Diru/Mirror James Kirk
Series: Starlight Chronicles [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2000692





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> “The Earth is littered with the ruins of empires that believed they were eternal.”  
> \- Camille Paglia

“CAPTAIN’S LOG, STARDATE 59553.1. It has been three days since Commander Anderson and I last were in contact with the _Salaminia_. We have about four days of rations and breathable air left in our shuttle and managed to repair the engines. However, our energy supply was deprived during the shift. We have been sitting in the same position for eighteen hours with no way to start the engines. It is highly doubtful that we will be found by any ship before our supplies run out – and if someone does find us, it is even more doubtful that they will be willing to help us.

“Besides that, Anderson’s condition is steadily deteriorating. He keeps assuring me that he is fine and able to perform his duties, but I know his injury is weighing on him. He needs surgery and he needs it soon if he wants to survive.”

Admiral Fujita Diru got up from her chair and walked around the little ship she and her first officer Anderson had managed to steal from outpost on Aletheia, a planet in the Aekjaeo system where Fujita and her First Officer had been stranded. She sat down on one of the chairs behind the shuttle’s controls and sighed as she thought of how she and her First Officer had ended up there.

“I suppose I haven’t really updated these logs regularly since this all started; I was pretty occupied with saving me and Anderson, I assume that’s forgiven. However, in case we don’t survive, you ought to know what brought us here, stranded in the Mirror Universe without any way of getting back home."


	2. Chapter 2

FUJITA WAS LYING ON the couch in her quarters on the Starship _Starlight_ with a steaming mug of cranberry-chocolate coffee in one hand and a book in the other. It was late in the evening and the Admiral has just gotten back from a long and stressful day in Engineering. Chief Engineer Ya’MogH Q’Ara had been running some upgrades on the warp core, but it had kept breaking down. Fujita had offered to help her sort things out. Now, the Admiral was glad to be in her quarters, to relax a bit and make up for her missed lunch and dinner.

Fujita was just about to take another sip of her coffee, when her computer chimed and the face of Admiral Romanov appeared on its screen. Fujita quickly got up and walked over to the computer.

“Admiral Romanov”, she said, pulling up an eyebrow. “It’s a surprise to see you.”

“Admiral”, the middle-aged woman on the screen said. Her icy blue eyes beamed with concern. The woman’s messy red hair that was streaked with grey and her tired composure made it clear to Fujita that something was going on. Something bad.

“I had better keep this short, so I’ll cut directly to the chase. The USS _Green_ has gone missing and we want you and your ship to find it.”

Fujita frowned. The _Green_? That was one of Starfleet’s newest ships, even newer than the _Starlight_ herself. “What has happened to it?”

Romanov sighed. “We don’t know. It seemed to have just… disappeared. No debris, no residual energy traces, nothing.” The Admiral pulled up her eyebrows to strengthen her statement. “It’s just gone.”

Fujita’s expression turned dark. “That ship has over a thousand people on it”, she said with a strained voice. Then she straightened her face and continued in a neutral tone, “How do you propose we find it?”

‘The _Green_ was on a mission in the Damara-system to investigate an unknown anomaly. They were scheduled to return within a week, but it has now been three weeks since we have last had contact with the ship. Your mission is to go to the Damara-system and try to find out anything about the disappearance of the _Green_ you can; any overlooked debris, any kind of traces.’

Fujita stayed silent. An unknown anomaly? The Admiral felt like there was something which Romanov was not telling her, and she doubted that the woman was planning on telling her any more. Fujita just could not put her finger on what exactly that would be.

“Alright Admiral, we’re on it. When do we leave?” Fujita asked.

“Immediately”, Admiral Romanov responded, her ever stern eyes drilling into those of Fujita, who countered the look with a pair of raised eyebrows.

\---

Fujita knocked on Commander Anderson’s quarters’ doors. A few minutes ago, she had tried to contact him to inform him about Admiral Romanov’s orders, but she had gotten – weirdly – no response. Now, her face turned dark as, again, there was no response. However, the computer had confirmed that Anderson was in his quarters.

Fujita stepped closer to the door. A wave of worry rushed through her, it had never happened before that she could not reach Anderson, and the only explanation that she could think of, was that something had to be wrong with him. She hoped she was wrong. After pushed a few buttons on the pad next to the door to Anderson’s quarters, Fujita overrode the door’s locking mechanism. She walked inside.

“Commander!” she called out. No response. Fujita stepped into her First Officer’s quarters and looked around. The room was empty, except for some scarce furniture. Fujita had been in Anderson’s room more often and had always found it strangely bland. She knew the man had a fine taste in art and possessed more than an average amount of gold-pressed latinum – especially considering that having latinum _at all_ was strange for Starfleet officers. Anderson was easily richer than the average money crazy Ferengi. However, he did not ever seem to use any of this money, and preferred a clean and orderly, almost spartan room.

Fujita was walking over to Anderson’s bedroom, when she suddenly heard voices. One of them, she quickly recognized as that of her First Officer. The other, she could not place immediately, but she knew it sounded familiar. It was the voice of an older man, and it was one that she had heard many, many times before.

The Captain had now gotten close enough to make out some words.

“Admiral”, Fujita heard Anderson say, “sir, I’m only going to say this one final time. I am fully aware that my position isn’t ideal for SIGMA, but think of the possibilities. From here, I’ll have a first-hand look at the Agaecii threat.”

“Commander, I am your outranking officer and I am deciding that you cannot stay. Am I making myself clear?” The voice sounded tired and annoyed.

‘Totally’, Anderson answered, and Fujita would swear that she heard a smile in the man’s voice. “Besides”, Anderson continued, not seeming to put any weight behind his companion’s words, “I can keep an eye on Diru for you.”

Fujita raised an eyebrow, standing hidden in the shadows of her first officer’s quarters. “An eye on me?” she said while stepping forward, her head slightly tilted. “Owen, you do trust me. Don’t you? You and this… SIGMA?” There was a suppressed undertone of anger in the Admiral’s voice, shocked by the idea of being distrusted by the man she used to serve under so many years ago; a man whom she respected and had trusted with her life over and over again.

“Captain!” Anderson called out, shock and discomfort visible in his posture after his commanding officer’s sudden appearance. He jumped up and turned around.

Fujita stood still, one eyebrow still raised. Her eyes pierced into those of her First Officer like a deadly dagger tends to do in the black heart of an enemy. The only light in the room was coming from Anderson’s screen, where Admiral Owen Paris’ tired face was still apparent. The light hit the Captain’s face with a blue hue which gave her an eerie illumination – like a ghost which had crept up thought the night, ready to slay his enemy. Fujita felt anger rise inside of her, as she looked at the man whom she had trusted with the safety of her ship for the past seven months. At that moment, she wanted nothing more than to know why these two men that she knew so well, seemingly did not trust her. At that instant, she saw fear in her First Officer’s eye. A fear she knew all too well. The fear of knowing that you are looking death into the eye, but that there is nothing you can do about it. The fear of knowing how deadly your opponent is. But mostly, the fear of having lost the respect of someone you would give your life for. Someone who you care deeply about, but also someone who can kill you in an instant if their mind is set for it. Being looked at that way, was a feeling Fujita wished she did not like.

“Admiral, please step out of the room”, Paris said.

Fujita tilted her head, but did not respond.

“Dir-” Paris continued.

Fujita authoritatively interrupted the Admiral. “Owen, with all due respect, this is my ship. I don’t very much appreciate being spoken about behind my back”

Paris sighed, but before he could respond, Fujita continued. “I don’t have the slightest clue what is going on, but for all I am concerned, you have just gone one step too far.”

“Fujita”, Admiral Paris tried again, but Fujita would have none of it. The woman raised her eyebrow again, this time rather in anger than in surprise. Everyone knew not to mess with Admiral Diru when she was angry, that could turn out to be a rather dangerous hobby.

This time, it was Anderson who prevented Admiral Paris from speaking. “Admiral, sir, I think we can trust the Captain.”

“What?” Paris responded.

“Considering that the fair Captain has heard us talk about SIGMA anyhow, we may as well tell her.”

Paris frowned, sunken in thought, Fujita knew that at that moment he was considering every advantage and disadvantage of letting her in on their little secret. “Alright then”, Paris mumbled after a minute or so, and he lifted his head back up. His blue eyes pierced into those of Fujita, as if to judge what was going through her head.

Fujita stepped out of the shadows, intuitively feeling that her old mentor had accepted her into the close circles of whatever this scheme was.

“SIGMA”, Paris started, “stands for Starfleet Intelligence Gathering and Military Action. We are a Starfleet intelligence agency, hidden deep into the most intimate layers of Starfleet, Starfleet Command and every mission you can possibly think of. Our goal is – obviously – to gather information and to prevent any type of military action if possibly. However, in case of war, our job is to find out as much as we possibly can about our enemy in order to attack as efficiently as possible.”

Fujita frowned. An intelligence agency? Does Starfleet not have enough of those yet? They already had Starfleet Intelligence and Covert Operations, after all.

“And what are your roles in this?” Fujita asked, looking from her second-in-command to the Admiral and back.

Anderson looked up at her. “Paris is the commander”, he said. “I’m one of his top-agents, codename Apollo.” The Commander sounded proud as he said this, and a slight smile tainted his face.


	3. Chapter 3

_SIGMA._ FUJITA COULD NOT get it out of her head. Somewhere, she felt like Anderson had betrayed her. Not in any backstabby, evil way, but it nonetheless felt like a betrayal. He was her First Officer, the second most important person on the entire ship; and he had managed to keep something as important as this from her. She had heard Anderson say it herself, he had been keeping an eye on her. In some way, Anderson and Paris had not fully trusted her. And Fujita had no idea why

Besides, Fujita felt like she had failed herself. She should have seen it; she should have seen _something._

“Captain”, a voice called Fujita out of her thoughts. “We’re approaching the Damara-system”, Ensign Stacy continued.

“Drop us out of warp”, Fujita said, and she stood up. “Now let’s see what we’ve got here.” She looked at the view screen, where the star-streaked image of space at warp diminished into single small dots. _Where do I start?_ Fujita thought. There was an infinity of space in front of her, and no single lead.

Fujita felt her First Officer’s eyes pierce into her back and turned around. Yes, she was annoyed with him, but that did not mean she did not see him fit to perform his duties.

“Perform a level three scan”, Fujita said, and Anderson nodded in agreement. A level three scan was a basic type of scan, meant to find any form of residual energy traces. The Captain did not expect to find anything, but it was always best to start at the beginning.

It was silent for a moment, then Chief Science Officer Aridiya Neriouix shook her head. “Nothing, Captain”, she said.

Fujita drew a breath and let her mind wander. _How could an_ entire _ship disappear?_ She recalled Admiral Romanov’s reports in her head. All the planets in the Damara-system had been scanned for transmissions and traces of shipwrecks. The results had come up negative. There were no residual ion traces, no warp trail. Everything seemed to point at that the _Green_ had disappeared in thin air. However, that was not possible, of course.

“Neriouix, scan for any changes in density of the vacuum. I assume that all previous scans for debris have been thorough, but I want to be entirely sure.”

The Chief Science Officer did as was asked, but again the scans had no result.

Fujita sighed. There did not seem to be many options left. But the Admiral was not about to give up. A ship had disappeared, and she would do everything in her power to get it back. Or to at least find it, in whatever shape it would be in.

\---

A week had passed since the _Starlight_ had entered the Damara-system, and Fujita and her crew had made no progress whatsoever. The Admiral walked the corridors toward the Bridge to start her morning shift. More than anything, she hoped they would find something today, whatever it would be. They were slowly running out of options.

Fujita entered the empty turbolift and instructed it to take her to the Bridge. After less than a minute, the doors slid open and revealed the familiar sight of the _Starlight_ ’s command centre. Her eyes drifted toward the chair in the middle of the room, which seated her commanding officer from the night shift, Ensign Eric Franklin. She strolled toward him in a way more relaxed manner than she actually felt, and relieved the young man.

Fujita sat down in her chair, but as soon as she did, the ship rocked sharply to the right and she was thrown on the ground. “What was that?” the Admiral called out as soon as she got back onto her feet. She looked around and saw that most of her officers were scattered around on the floor, but no one seemed to be hurt.

“Us has been hit by a photon torpedo”, Security Officer B.J. answered, his accented voice the ever paragon of peace.

“Tremeni, any ships in the vicinity?”

The Asian man shot up. “A Romulan warbird nearing our port bow, sir”, he said.

Romulans? So far into Federation space? Fujita frowned, but quickly recomposed herself and turned toward the viewscreen. “On screen”, she said, carefully maintaining a calm posture.

The star-filled wall in front of her flickered and now showed the threatening sight of a Romulan vessel closing in on them.

Fujita turned toward her helmsman. “Mr. Stacy, evasive manoeuvres.” The Admiral felt the slight change in engine activity vibrate through the decks, a feeling that only a true veteran would recognize. She returned her focus to the viewscreen, on which she saw the green flashes of Romulan phaser fire. She had not yet given her crew the order to return fire, and she knew they were waiting for her.

However, Fujita’s senses tingled and told her that something was not right here. There were not supposed to be any Romulans in this sector, so far into Federation territory. Besides, they had a peace treaty with the Romulans which was standing strongly, and the Romulans had nothing to gain by attacking a Starfleet ship. Starfleet greatly overpowered their fleet, and a war between the two powers would cut off the Romulans from any external trade routes whatsoever.

Romulans were a logical and tactical people, but there were not a lot of logical conclusions to this situation. Either this Romulan warbird and its crew was not acting on their own influence, or they were a bunch of patriotic men who had not been able to let the years of violence between the Federation and the Romulan Empire in the past. Or, these were not Romulans.

\---

“Shields are down to 82 percents”, Commander B.J. chimed. “Captain, us must do something.”

“Commander, target their propulsion system, don’t destroy them”, Fujita said.

The commander nodded in response, and after a second a red beam flashed over the view screen. “A direct hit, sir. Propulsion is down.”

“Hail them.”

“No response, sir”, beamed Lieutenant Tremeni.

Another blast hit the ship, and explosions filled the Bridge.

“Shields are down to 58 percents.”

Fujita strained her mind. What could they do? She did not want to take the enemy ship down before she knew what was going on, but she could not endanger her crew either.

The ship rocked again, more sharply this time. It tumbled over and kept rolling as the inertial dampeners overloaded. Fujita was thrown out of her chair, and she saw Leiutenant Neriouix being blown backward as the science console explode. The lights flickered and main power went down.

The Admiral jumped back onto her feet. “What the hell was that?” she yelled over the noise that filled the Bridge.

“It seems to be an unknown energy weapon”, the answer from B.J. came, one of the few officers left on his feet.

Fujita looked around her, scanning the Bridge for damage and casualties. Her eyes came to a halt as they hovered over Anderson, who lay unconsciously on the ground. She pushed her combadge. “Medical team to the Bridge.”

Then, the lights slowly flickered back on and Fujita demanded “Report”.

Almost immediately, Lieutenant Tremeni’s response came. “Inertial dampeners are down, main power just came back online. Hull breaches on decks 15 through 18.”

“Shields are at 48 percents and dropping. Both photon torpedoes launchers and phasers arrays are still online”, B.J. added.

“Casualties?”

“17 casualty reports, 13 minor. No fatalities”, Tremeni answered.

Fujita nodded. These were not the best odds, but it could be much worse. However, they had to act quickly. She sat back down on the captain’s chair and said stoutly, “B.J., fire at will.” Informa-tion was valuable, but so were the lives of her crewmembers.

Two phaser blasts emitted from the ship and hit the green warbird. It’s port nacelle blew to pieces, throwing the ship into a spin. The vessel returned fire, hitting the _Starlight_ ’s aft shield grid, and the starship rocked forward.

Fujita drew a breath. She was strangely calm for someone who was facing death, but then this was not her first time. Her mind was clear and focused on the task ahead.

The Admiral looked besides her, and unexpectedly she saw that Anderson had gotten up, denying the help of the medical team that had reached the Bridge by now. Fujita had been too focussed to notice. She knew that if there was any willpower left in Anderson, there was no way he would retreat in the middle of a fight. Not even if he was mortally injured.

Suddenly, Fujita felt a cold piece of metal hit the bare skin in her neck. She froze. A rush of shock paralyzed her, and before the Captain could put on any kind of resistance, the world began to fade.


	4. Chapter 4

STRAY BEAMS OF LIGHT darted thought Fujita’s half-opened eyelashes. With great effort, she lifted one of her arms and stroked some loose strands of hair out of her face. Then she lifted her head as far as she could, let it rest on her arm, and looked around.

The world around the Admiral was strangely familiar to her. As she forced her eyes to focus and scan the area, she saw that she was surrounded by trees and grassland, stretching as far as her eyes could see. The trees were at least a hundred meters high. Their trunks had a creamish shade of white that was marked with yellow and black spots. The leaves were of a bright green colour that almost seemed surreal, and only grew in the utmost tops of the trunks.

The grass on which Fujita lay, was of a much deeper shade of green than the leaves that filled she sky above her. The contrast of these colours and the whiteness in between seemed to give the place a mystical air, at the same time eerie and beautiful. The silence that surrounded Fujita also added to that eeriness, only broken by a soft rustle of the leaves high above and the murmur of a small river slightly on Fujita’s left.

The place somehow reminded Fujita of her ancestral home, and in her half-conscious state, she was succumbed by a wave of memories.

\--

It was a burning hot mid-summer afternoon, and a fourteen-year-old Fujita jumped hastily through the forest next to her and her grandfather’s house. She was on her way to the top of the mountain where her friend Zantor was waiting for her. Here, she was in total control of her surroundings. She knew every tree, every branch so well that she did not even have to watch her feet to know when she had to jump over fallen sticks and trees and keep herself from tumbling on the ground. This was her home, and the only home she had ever known. Her grandfather’s little house on the edge of the cliff that overlooked her city Katalor was all good and well, but every free moment that she could spare she spent in the forest.

In a moment, Fujita would pass the river Ganti, that began high in the mountains and flowed all the way to the lake at the edge of the city, where it provided the citizens with water, as it had done for centuries. But here it was nothing more than a small creek. Fujita could easily pass through it without getting wet above her waist, and a little cool water would do her well on a hot day like this one. She jumped into the calm blue liquid and skidded over a few rocks to the other side. There, she passed the abandoned hunters cottage and entered the clearing.

Fujita sat down and took a moment to rest. Not that she was tired – she never was – but she liked to be alone, and this place was perfect for peacefully sorting out her mind.

This had not been a good day for young Fujita. It was the fourth of July, exactly ten years since Fujita’s parents had passed. She herself had barely know them, she was only four years old when they had died and she barely had any memory of them. For her grandfather, however, it had once again been a traumatic experience. twenty-four years prior, he had lost his wife and had been left with a twelve-year-old daughter – Demiyah, Fujita’s mother – to raise on his own. Only four years before that, he had lost his eighteen-year-old son, and even before that he had fought in the Great War. Every last grain of happiness had been torn out of the poor man, and he reflected that greatly upon his only grandchild. It had not token much of Fujita’s infinite stubbornness to get outraged on this doomed day, and he had hit her until she had managed to find a way to run away.

Once Fujita was free, she had contacted her only friend, the only one who she allowed to see her weak side. It was so easy for the alien boy to cheer her up. He had known his own share of despair, but seemed to have an endless supply of positivity.

Fujita shook her head to get rid of the lingering memories and jumped up. The place where Zantor was awaiting her was only four kilometres away, a distance she could easily cross within a half an hour without breaking a sweat. The young girl jumped up and continued her trek. After a minute, however, she stopped. Something felt wrong, and Fujita knew better than to ignore her instincts.

Right now, the Daelan girl was standing next to a small cliff, just steep enough to give her a good view over the metropolis in front of her.

And that’s when it started.

\--

Fujita sat up. _It couldn’t be. Could it?_ She thought. But then she realised the stupidity of her own thoughts. This was not Dael. Her planet had been destroyed by the Borg over a century ago. This was not the forest which she had grown up in, just one that resembled it strangely much. So much that it almost scared her.

Suddenly, the Captain heard a rustle in the bushes behind her. She jumped up and turned around, her hand sliding to where her phaser normally would be as in a reflex. But she found no weapon.

It stayed silent for a second. Then Fujita heard another rustle and saw the leaves of the bushes move a bit on her left. After a moment, a woman stepped out of the scrubland.

“Excuse me, your Grace”, the older lady said, her long and grey braid wavering in the wind. “I did not mean to startle you.”

“Who are you?” Fujita answered, carefully scanning the posture of the woman. She seemed to be human and looked around eighty years old. Her clothes were dusty and ragged, workman’s clothes, and she was barefoot. The woman had to be extremely poor.

‘Excuse me, your Grace. It was foolish me to assume you would know my name. I am Elizabeth Aleida van Gogh, dear.”

“Can you tell me where I am exactly?”

A confused look appeared on the woman’s face. “Can I invite you in for a drink, your Grace?” Elizabeth avoided Fujita’s question. “Pardon me for saying so, but you look positively starved, dear.”

Fujita nodded and smiled politely. “You’re very generous, ma’am.”

“And you are nothing like I imagined you to be.”

Now it was Fujita’s turn to be confused. “You have heard of me, then?”

‘My dear’, Elizabeth started. “Everyone has heard of you.”

The two women looked at each other for a moment, both sunken in confusion-filled thoughts. Then the old lady dribbled away toward a house that was hidden inside the dense bushes, and Fujita followed.

\--

Fujita took a sip of her hot coffee. It had been half an hour since she had entered Elizabeth’s house, and they had not spoken since. The woman had made Fujita a drink and some food but had taken nothing herself. One look at Elizabeth’s house had confirmed Fujita’s suspicions that the lady had to be incredibly poor, which made her offer to Fujita even more generous. The house was a simple wooden cottage with no decorations of any kind. The interior was just as spartan as the outside. Two chairs and a single table filled the small living room, which functioned as a bedroom at the same time. A small door led to what Fujita assumed was a bedroom. There did not seem to be a bathroom, nor electricity.

Elizabeth sat opposite of Fujita on one of the small chairs, her folded hands resting on the white wood of the table. She was staring straight at Fujita, who tried to summon an air of authority as she uncomfortably stared back. The Admiral was no since shy, but people were nonetheless not her strongest suit.

Fujita decided that one of them had to break the silence, and she did not think that the old lady would be the one to do that. “You haven’t answered my question”, she said.

“On Medea, your Grace, Elizabeth answered. ‘Where else did you think you would be, then?”

Fujita took a moment to think before she answered. She decided on the direct approach. ‘Last thing I remember I was in the Damara-system.

The woman threw her a puzzled look. “I thought the Damara-system was still in the hands of the rebels.”

“Rebels?”

“Yes.” Elizabeth shifted uncomfortably on her chair. “It has been quite a while since I managed to receive the news here, but last time I heard the Rebels were still in control of the entire space between the Dalsa-sector until the Herobite nebula.”

Those names sounded familiar to Fujita. The Dalsa-sector contained the Bemendi-system, which housed an important Cardassian outpost. The Herobite-sector was in Romulan territory, with Federation space in between the two sectors. Fujita did not know what rebels Elizabeth was talking about, but there were certainly none to be found there.

“Your Grace”, Elizabeth interrupted Fujita’s train of thought, “Pardon me for asking, but what are you doing all the way out here? Aren’t you usually in your presidential home in the Ascania Province?”

“I think you’re confusing me with someone else, ma’am”, was the only thing Fujita knew to say. She was growing more and more confused. The planet Medea sounded unfamiliar to her, and so did the Ascania Province.

“You? No, dear, I’m pretty sure I’m not.”


	5. Chapter 5

FUJITA LOOKED UP TOWARD the big, grey mansion in front of her. It was easily the ugliest building she had ever seen, and she had immediately recognized its origin. Years ago, she had stood inside of it when she had received a medallion for bravery from the mayor of Katalor after she had helped save her planet. After she had lost her grandfather and half of her world’s population.

But this was not the same building. It was a near-perfect copy of it, however. Fujita could not make out any differences from the original version.

Fujita had been brought to the Presidential Residence in Ascania Province by Elizabeth, all the way from Tegra Province on the other end of the continent, where she had met the old lady. Luckily, they had been able to fetch a ride.

After the two women had arrived in Ascania Province, Fujita had sent Elizabeth home, where the Daelan woman was sure she would be safe. Fujita did not know if she were in any danger, but until she would find out how she got of Medea, she did not want to take any risks.

After a moment, the door in front of Fujita opened with great effort, and a tanned face appeared to the Admiral.

“Your Excellency!” the man called out, the terror clearly visible on his handsome face, “I– I thought you were inside”, he continued, stuttering as he spoke. “I’m terribly sorry, your Excellency! I’ll inform the guards of your arrival!”

“No need”, Fujita said with a carefully planned intimidating grin. “I just went for a walk, I’ll be going inside now.”

Fujita walked through the door, uncaringly shoving the poor man aside on her way. The attitude she chose to use somewhat resembled how she used to be as a teenager, yet it was for the most part the exact opposite of how she was nowadays. It scared her how little effort it took her to adopt that intimidating, aggressive approach herself.

The inside of the Presidential Residence was exactly as Fujita expected it to be. Right opposite of the two big entrance doors was a wide staircase that led to the second floor. The stairs were as grey as the outside of the building and were draped with a red carpet. The rest of the floor was made up out of tiny white tiles made of crystalline stone, many of which were cracked from the frequent usage of the entrance hall.

The left side of the hall was decorated with a foreign banner that was draped all over the wall, which was the only difference with the original building. That one had had a flag of the Kataloran Empire, Fujita’s home country.

Fujita looked at the stairway, and without further hesitation she climbed onto it to the second floor. Stoutly, she trotted toward her destination. She was not exactly sure what she was expecting to find, but any information whatsoever would help her at this moment.

After a minute or so, Fujita had reached the hallway that led her to an office. She halted before it and drew a deep breath, carefully calming her mind before entering. Then, she knocked on the door and entered without waiting for an answer.

\---

The room was poorly illuminated. The face that stared at Fujita from behind a desk at the other side of the room, was hidden in the shadows. Fujita could not make out many of its features, but nonetheless she knew it was the kind of face that stood out in a crowd, that you would remember for the rest of your life. Light that fell into the room from the hallway, reflected in the pure brown and golden-specked eyes.

The face was supported by a body whose female features were all but masked by the clothing worn over it. The greyish tunic that the woman wore, was pressed to her skin by a golden breastplate lined with decorative figures. The body looked no older than that of a schoolgirl, yet Fujita knew that the woman who possessed it was not so innocent.

The woman stood up so quickly that her pure golden chair tumbled over, hitting the ground with a loud cling. ‘You!’ she called out. Then she recomposed herself and walked in front of her desk toward the Starfleet officer that faced her. woman that was standing in her doorway. “Hello again”, she continued, sarcasm dripping off her words.

The two women stood opposing each other for a moment, more words being spoken in the silence that hung between them than words ever could.

After what felt like an eternity, Fujita broke the ice. “Nicely decorated”, she said, her eyes scanning the overly decorated room now she had adjusted to the poor lighting.

“Think so?” the Emperor responded, her head tilted slightly to the left.

“Not really”, Fujita chuffed.

The Emperor grinned. She walked over to one of her glass cupboards that was filled with hundreds of objects that her companion could not clearly make out, and lifted one. She held it in the air where Fujita could see it. It was a purple pig-like doll that seemed to be centuries old. Then the woman threw it on the ground, where it exploded in an ecstasy of crystalline splinters that scattered over the soft-red rug on the floor.

Admiral Diru said nothing. She knew the woman was just toying with her.

The Emperor walked back to her desk and sad down, lying her slender legs rudely on the dark wood of the counter. “I wish I could be a good hostess and offer you a drink”, the tanned woman said, “but sadly, I don’t really want to.”

Fujita sighed. She knew that the Emperor was trying to get a response from her part. And she was failing miserably. There was no way that Fujita would let herself be commandeered.

“Oh, you’re so boring!” the Emperor continued when Fujita again ignored her act, throwing her arms into the air.

“You’ve done quite well for yourself”, Fujita said now.

The woman smiled at this comment. “I have indeed, don’t you think? Last time we saw each other, I was still Kirk’s toying thing, shoving me wherever he wanted. Favourably up his ass.” Then her expression hardened. “Well, that pain in the ass is dead now, resting on the bottom of the ocean I threw him in.”

Fujita swallowed, that comment hit her harder than she liked. Her husband had been dead for almost a century now – technically he had died in 2371 when he, Fujita and Picard had defeated Dr. Soran, but most people thought he had died in the year 2293 when he and Fujita had disappeared into an anomaly called the Nexus – but James was a very touchy subject to her.

“You killed him”, she said.

“Damned right I did. The world’s better off without him.”

Fujita raised an eyebrow. “There are surely quite some people who’d say the same about you.”

The Emperor snorted. “You can’t rule a country without making _some_ enemies.”

Promptly, Fujita walked toward her collocutor’s desk and planted her palms on the counter. “Oh yes you can”, her voice dropping dangerously low, “just be reasonable and kind. Be strong, don’t give in if you believe in something, but follow the advice of those beneath you and keep your citizens happy instead of fearful. And most importantly, follow justice, always. _That’s_ the way to rule an empire.’

The Emperor laughed and tucked her feet beneath her desk. “How naïve!” She jumped up and bent forward until her face was just centimetres removed of the other woman’s. In less than a second, her expression changed from jovial to cold as stone. “Now, enough with the small talk. Tell me what you’re doing here, or I’ll have my guards remove you.”

Fujita frowned. What the Emperor asked her just now was the exact reason why she had come here in the first place. She had assumed that this woman had had something to do with bringing her to this place.

Now it seemed that the Terran had had no knowledge of her arrival, and Fujita was even more curious as to what had brought her here. However, if the Emperor really had not had any part in Fujita’s arrival here, then Fujita had gotten herself into a very, very dangerous situation by walking straight into the lion’s nest. The Emperor would not hesitate to kill her at the first sign of trouble, and with her own temper, creating trouble would not take much effort. Fujita might have already signed her death warrant by her own behaviour in the past ten minutes.

However, Fujita knew that the Emperor could also appreciate a challenge. For that reason, she did not step backward as her collocutor came closer, and she stared straight back into those golden eyes.

“Can’t I just drop by to say hello?” Fujita said.

“Oh, you can”, the Terran woman in front of her answered. “But over a century since out last oh-so pleasant meeting? After you sent me one of your miserable middlemen first? Doubtful.”

Suddenly, a flash of metal slid toward Fujita’s face, and she could only step back just in time enough to dodge the dagger. In a reflex, she let her own hand slide toward where she would usually carry her phaser, but came back empty. She threw her body to the right to dodge another lightning quick attack, and reached behind her onto the treasure-filled shelves. Her right left hand closed around a trophy of some sort, and she threw it forward toward the Emperor. The woman did not even try to step back and lifted her hand to catch the golden object without any effort. Not even a second later, she threw her body forward onto Fujita, stabbing her knife into Fujita’s belly.

But Fujita, who had anticipated the woman’s move, was even quicker. She grabbed the arm that was holding the dagger and turned it onto the woman’s back while she spun her around. The Terran slammed into her own cupboard and knocked over her precious treasures.

The Emperor managed to free herself and turned around, her dagger again pointing toward Fujita. In that position, they stood still for a moment, looking each other calmly in the eye. The Admiral’s expression was one of deadly seriousness, while the Emperor’s face was tainted by a joyful and threatening grin that made Fujita shiver.

Then the Emperor grabbed Fujita by her throat. She turned the both of them around and pushed Fujita into the cupboard where she herself had just been standing. She lifted her free right hand which was still holding the knife. Then she threw it aside, letting go of Fujita and slamming her fist into the woman’s face, who stumbled backward with a pained grimace. Before the Starfleet officer could recompose herself, the Terran woman slammed her left first into her stomach.

Fujita stumbled backward. She put her hands in a defensive position as her counterpart dashed toward her, ready for another blow. This time Fujita dodged the attack, and she threw her knee into the woman’s side as she stumbled past her. But before Fujita could do anything more, the Emperor had turned around and came toward her once again.

Fujita jumped backward as a fist flashed toward her, and a wave of anxiety rushed through her as she felt her back hit the wall. She had nowhere to go.

Then the dagger swung toward her once again, the Emperor must have picked it up. Fujita threw herself to the left. However, the Terran had anticipated her move and had planted her foot in Fujita’s way, causing her to tumble over.

Fujita hit the ground with a thud and had no time to turn away before the Emperor’s leg hit her in the side. A wave of pain shot through her body as she felt one of her ribs break. Then she felt a sharp sting in her stomach and everything went dark.


	6. Chapter 6

FIRST MINISTER CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON stood on the bow of his ship, looking out over the vast reaches of the deep blue see that closed in on him from each side. His hands closed around the railing in a tight but relaxed grip, and the wind toyed with his close-cropped blond hair.

Today had been a good day for the young Human. He had bought another hotel in the lower parts of California near San Francisco, and been able to greatly reduce the price by some slight threats, because of which he had bought the hotel for less than half of what it was actually worth.

After that, he had killed the seller – a rather hideous Andorian man – which had brightened his day even more. Anderson smiled as he remembered the man’s futile screams while the _owegje_ had devoured him alive. One of the man’s badly attended molars now hung on a glistering teeth-filled rope that adorned Anderon’s sturdy neck.

“Chris”, a feminine voice behind Anderson said, and the man turned around to face the owner of this voice.

In front of Anderson stood a beautiful woman. She had long, neatly cropped hair that softened the fine contours her smooth-skinned face like a golden crown. Her icy blue eyes shone out of their sockets like moonlit jewels in a bight sky. Her skin was of a milk-like shade, light but precious. Her soft blue gown flowed around the woman’s ankles as she closed in on her maker.

“Athena”, Anderson beamed, a broad smile splitting his face in two. He held out his arms and took the android’s arms in his. He pulled her body close, letting go of her hands and tightening his arms around her slender waist.

The android smiled as well, putting her hands on her maker’s face and tracing his sharp jawbones with her elegant fingers. Anderson’s body fired up while heaving sparks of electricity ran through his veins like deadly poison. Only, this poison was sweet and he eagerly gave in to it. He pulled her warm body even closer and let out a soft moan of passion as his lips found hers.

However, then Athena pulled back. “Chris”, she said again, her voice devoid of any of the emotions that left Anderson unsteady on his feet.

Anderson sighed. He might have programmed Athena as the perfect lover physically, but lack of emotion always took away that one extra spark. However, he had always known that this was to happen when he took Athena’s mental programming from his computer and reinstated it in the perfect mechanical body which he had designed for her. And even though it had meant giving up on the emotion chip which Anderson had been able to steel from Dr. Soong many years ago, it had been Athena’s wish as well.

“Have you got anything for me, lovely?” Anderson responded after his moment’s pondering, his British accent sharp due to the high level of emotions that were running through his body.

“Hillary Piatti Illinois has contacted you on a secure channel.”

Anderson let out a sigh. He was not in the mood to deal with the righteous retarded second-in-command of his hotel chain right now. The only reason he had allowed the man to remain on his post was because he always carried out every order he was given at an incredible speed and without questions. However, some-times Anderson would rather see the man dead in the ocean and one of his molars hung around his neck.

Anderson nodded a ‘thank you’ to his companion and walked over to his quarters to take Illinois’ call.

As soon as he was inside, Anderson walked over to his holographic projector and entered the commands that would start the call. In less than a second, the image of a slightly crooked and grey-haired middle-aged man wearing a pitch-black tuxedo appeared in front of him.

“Sir!” the figure called out, a stupendous excitement vibrating in his voice.

“What have you got, old sport?” Anderson asked the hideous man, coming straight to the point.

“Problems, sir.”

Anderson sighed. One more piece of bad news and he would kill the man. Faking a sense of patience, Anderson waited for his chief to continue.

“Rasgath has once again demanded we move the _Dekanta_ from what he claims is ‘is territory. I let Mister Wulfgang consult the intake-allowance documents Irkah sen’ me last week, Mister say Rasgath is right, officially. Now, I know you’ll order me to ask Radar to kill Rasgath so he won’ cause any more problems, but Trinity sen’ me a message saying that he would sen’ Capman after us if we–”

Anderson lifted his hand, cutting off Illinois mid-sentence. “That’s enough, old sport”, he demanded. “I propose you send Irkah to kill Trinity and let Bertan take care of Rasgath. I–”

Suddenly, Anderson’s emergency message claxon blared and cut off his conversation. Anderson froze and turned away from his second-in-command. ‘End transmission’, the man stated without as much as a simple goodbye. Then he turned back toward his holographic projector, staring right into the eyes of his master.

“Emperor”, he said.

\---

Fernando Ramirez walked the shore from the commerce hall to Imzah Kishna’s house, where he had been staying for the past two and a half weeks. His eyes were focussed on the ground, oblivious to the astounding nature that surrounded him. He stopped for a moment to rest and laid his simple wooden crutches in the red sand besides him.

The Brazilian man drew a deep breath and tried to tune out the insufferable sound of waves smashing onto the rocky coastline. His Asperger’s syndrome had always made it hard for him to cope with some types of continuous sounds like the ocean at this moment did, but he tried to ignore the anxiety that it triggered in him.

Ramirez was just about to close his eyes and take a nap, when he heard footsteps coming his way. He shot back up, ready to defend himself if necessary. After a moment, however, he saw that it was Imzah who was walking up to him, and he scolded himself for having been so on edge these past few days.

‘Hi there’, the young Indian woman called out to him when she came into hearing distance.

Ramirez held up one callused hand as manner of greeting, and waited for Imzah to reach him. He felt a warm and fuzzy feeling creep up in his belly at the sight of the pretty woman.

“How you holding up?” Imzah asked while sitting down next to Ramirez, a sense of worry softening her fine contours.

“Oh, I’m alright”, Ramirez lied, knowing that the woman would in no way fall for it.

Imzah took Ramirez’s chin in her fine hands and turned his face so she could look him in the eye. “And now an honest answer, please”, she demanded.

Ramirez sighed. “Leg hurts”, he started.

Imzah looked worried. ‘The wound should have healed by now.’

“I’m sure it will”, Ramirez answered unconvincingly.

“To be honest, your physical state is not what I’m worried about.”

Ramirez tried to pull his face free from Imzah’s tender grasp. As long as he could remember, he had been uncomfortable with talking about his deep running emotions. Even as a kid he had kept his feelings hidden from his parents, feeling too embarrassed about his chaotic and dark thoughts to discuss them with anyone, not even with any of the close friends and partners he would later in his life gain. Even the therapists that had tried to help him cope with some of the symptoms of his Asperger’s syndrome and anxiety disorder had not been able to get through to him.

But Imzah was different. Ever since she had found him more dead than alive on the coast near her house, she had been nothing but kind and honest with him, discussing her own feelings so freely that even he had been able to let out more to this woman he barely knew than to anyone before in his life. She had something about her that made him trust her, and he felt that that thrust went both ways.

However, he did not feel good about this. He had held up this mental shield around him and his emotions for so long, that he felt naked while tearing it down. With every bit of his thoughts that Imzah managed to pluck out of him, he felt just a bit more embarrassed, just a bit more vulnerable.

Ramirez realized he had stayed silent for just a bit too long and pulled away entirely from Imzah, embarrassment tormenting his features.

“It’s alright”, Imzah said, placing a hand on his tensed arm. She always seemed to understand him, even without any words.

“No, it’s not”, he said, standing up abruptly. He turned his back toward Imzah. “They’re all alone out there, scattered around the planet and fighting for their lives. And all I’m doing is sitting around, sulking about my own feelings because I’m too weak to do anything to save my crew.”


	7. Chapter 7

A COLD BAND OF metal pierced into Fujita’s wrists. Small droplets of blood ran down the bruised skin, where the sharp chains had cut her. The Admiral slowly became aware of the aching all over her body as she was waking up. She was lying on a cold stone floor that was filled with dirt and dust, even a patch of blood was visible here and there.

When Fujita opened her eyes, she saw nothing at first. She felt the darkness closing in on her, freezing her brain. However, she did not give herself time to be overtook by this ancient reflex and snapped herself out of it.

Carefully, Fujita pushed herself into a sitting position. She felt a sharp pang in her stomach where the Emperor had stabbed her, but she shook her head and pushed the pain to the back of her mind where it would not disturb her, a trick she had learned after years of hurt and abuse as child and young woman. The wound was closing up, no need to worry herself about it.

Then she looked around. Her eyes were growing accustomed to the poor level of illumination in the dungeon in which Fujita was locked up, and she could gradually make out more of her surroundings.

The room that held Fujita captive was about five by five meters in size, and the walls were made of massive stone. One wall was made up entirely of old-fashioned iron bars. It might not seem like a very impressively build cell to Fujita, but it definitely would succeed in doing its job.

Suddenly, the Admiral’s eyes caught sight of a movement on her left. She turned around, and to her astonishment, she saw a man slumped against the side of the wall opposite to her. He seemed to be studying her, his eyes fixated on her. She could not make out much of his physique, but one thing stood out: he was wearing a mustard-and-grey Starfleet uniform.

The figure must have noticed that Fujita had spotted him, because he stood up and cautiously walked toward the Admiral. While he was walking, Fujita noticed a limp, but that did not take down much of the slender yet dominant air that was visible in his demeanour.

“I didn’t mean to startle you”, the man said once he entered a comfortable speaking distance. His voice was much smoother and more boyish than Fujita had expected, and she raised an eyebrow.

“That’s quite alright”, Fujita said. “What’s your name?”

The man said down next to Fujita. “Ensign Aelius Valentino, sir. Excuse me for being so straight-forward, but aren’t you Admiral Diru?”

Fujita nodded her head in response. “That’s me. And please, no ranks. Just call my Fujita. I mean, it’s not like I could court-martial you for it.” She looked at the characteristic black Betazoid eyes and uttered a comforting smile.

“Of course, si– Fujita. Can… can I ask you; how did you get here? I– My ship– Isn’t this the Mirror Universe?” The last two words Valentino spoke with an air of disbelieve, with a sense of respect even.

“That’s right”, Fujita uttered. ‘This is the Mirror Universe, and I came here looking for you. Or, well, that is assuming you come from the _Green_?”

“That’s right, sir.”

“Fujita”, Fujita said.

“Fujita, sorry.”

\---

There was nothing more boring than being locked up in a cell. Not that the half Human half Betazoid man Valentino was bad company, he was not the best, but Fujita had put up with worse. However, cells where not the most fun place to be in, especially not with space-mice crawling the floor and a crisis going on.

It had been almost seven hours since Fujita had woken up here, plenty of time to get to know her fellow prisoner. He was an engineer of the _Green_ , fresh out of the Academy. The _Green_ had been doing research on an anomaly in the Damara-system, when the ship had been boarded by aliens and the crew had found themselves scattered over the planet where Fujita currently found herself at. Valentino had been stranded in the city near the Presidential Residence together with another number of Ensigns who had been working in Engineering, and the ship’s Chief Engineer Lieutenant-Commander Nora Owen.

Not knowing where they had been and on what treacherous ground they were finding themselves, the group had moved to the Presidential Residence as soon as they had found out of its existence, hoping to find answers. They had not. Instead, the bunch had been thrown into the dungeons, being slaughtered one after the other when the Emperor found they were not cooperative enough. Commander Kalliopeia had been sent to fetch her captain Fernando Ramirez. The Ensign had been left behind as assurance that she would finish her job.

The only thing that Valentino and his fellow officers had found out in this place, was that they were been stranded in the Mirror Universe, the alternative dimension in which the world as Fujita and the other inhabitants of the Prime Universe had been mirrored. The Terran Empire had been the main power for centuries, led by a Human tyrant who aggressively oppressed anyone who opposed their rule.

Fujita was familiar with the Mirror Universe, a bit too familiar to her liking. Years ago, when she had still been married to James Kirk, she had found herself stranded on the mirrored counterpart of her husband’s ship the _Enterprise_ , where she had met her own counterpart. It had been an encounter she had not forgotten even over a century later.

Fujita heard shuffling behind her and turned around, getting out of her slumber of thoughts. “Had a good sleep?” she said to her cellmate.

Valentino did not answer.

“Alright. No time for a good chat and morning exercise, we have to get out of here”, Fujita said.

“It’s no use.”

Fujita pulled up an eyebrow. “Not giving up, are you?”

Valentino looked up as the Admiral. “Fujita, I’ve tried. Unless a miracle comes along, there is no getting out of her. I’m an engineer, fixing and breaking things is my job.”

Fujita walked toward the iron bars holing the two inside. “Well, I can’t promise I’m the miracle you’re asking for–” She turned around. “But we won’t find out unless we try, will we?” With that, she started analysing the lock of the cell door.

Valentino sighed and walked up to Fujita. “I don’t suppose you have a hairpin on you?”

“Why what would I carry around that for?”

With her fingers, Fujita followed the iron bars and the lock that held the door in place, looking for weaknesses in the metal. She could find any. Then she took off her combadge.

“What are you doing?” Valentino asked.

Fujita held up a pin that she had taken out of her combadge. “No hairpin, but I’m an engineer too you know. I’ve always said these uniforms need pockets, but this’ll do, too.”

Suddenly, the two heard an unfamiliar voice. “That won’t do, ma’am, you better put it down.”

Fujita quickly put away the miniature optronic coupler. “Who the hell are you?”

“My, my, that’s not how we address a guard now is it, Admiral Diru?”

Fujita was taken aback. She had not expected her identity to be known to the guards, who knows what else the Emperor might have released about her.

The guard came closer to the cell holding Fujita and Valentino. The Admiral could make out some of his dark complexion, and– Fujita was startled when she noticed the pointed Vulcan ears of the man. He did not sound like a Vulcan at all. It could be his mirrored side that hid his logic, yet Fujita knew this had not been the case with any of the other Mirror Universe Vulcans that she had met.

The Vulcan man was no standing directly in front of Fujita. He put a hand on one of the bars and said: “Oh, how glad I am that the Emperor put you scum in jail, nothing is worse than having a _Starfleet_ officer on the loose.” While he said tis, he threw something into the cell. Then he quickly walked away. “I hope we won’t be seeing much more of each other, ma’am.”

Then he was gone.

Fujita turned around toward what the man had thrown on the ground. It had landed in the middle of the small prison, a glimmer shining on the muddy floor. She picked it up. “A miracle after all.”


	8. Chapter 8

FUJITA RAN UP THE old and slippery stairs. She felt her heart race as she tried to keep herself from losing her balance as she took the stairs three at a time. Her feet barely made a sound on the cold stone, but she heard the panting of Aelius Valentino behind her. She looked around and say that the Human-Betazoid was struggling to keep up with her. Yet she did not slow down. They had no time to lose, a guard could approach any moment and throw them back into their prison.

After Fujita had found the key, she and Valentino had waited until the Vulcan guard had left. Then they had opened their cell and had left quietly. To their surprise, no guards had been awaiting them and they had been able to climb un six stairs. The two Starfleet officers were now nearing the top of the dungeon, and Fujita was still surprised that they were not walking into a trap. It seemed the Emperor was tired of games. Or she had yet to start.

Whichever it was, Fujita was glad that she and the Ensign had managed to get out. Negative progress was still progress. At least the powers in their own hands now, instead of being pushed around by fate.

They had reached the end of the staircase and the Admiral stopped. She looked around, scanning her environment. In front of her, a narrow corridor loomed in the dark. Fujita could not see the end of the tunnel, as the illumination was so poor that she could barely make pout any details whatsoever. Apparently, the Emperor was not a fan of lights.

Fujita took a step forward into the darkness. When nothing happened, she looked back at Valentino. “This way”, she said, and she started walking again.

The tunnel seemed to continue endlessly, and the ominous feeling crept up in Fujita that the two of them were walking into a trap anyhow. The darkness was drenched in a heavy humidity, no light came from anywhere. Fujita had to follow the walls besides her with her hands to know that she was even walking the right way.

“Fujita”, the Human woman heard Valentino whisper behind her. “I don’t like this.”

“Chin up, it’s just a tunnel”, Fujita said. “These guards have to walk this every day, so there can’t be much wrong with this.”

“Well… I don’t like it anyhow. We can’t even see what’s coming, maybe they’re already chasing us!” Valentino’s voice trembled as he said this.

Fujita stopped and turned around. She put her hands on Valentino’s shoulders – or what she thought were his shoulders, since she could not see them. With her face close to his, she said, “If they’re on to us, turning around won’t do us any good. We _have_ to get out of here, it’s not as if we have a change. Or would you rather we go back and stay in that cell until we rot away? The Emperor won’t let us out, that’s for sure. So, as I said, chin up and let’s go. We’ve got a ship to rescue out there.” Fujita felt the man try to steady himself and the two of them continued on their way.

After a minute or so, they finally started seeing a light in front of them. Fujita quickened her pace until they reached the end of the tunnel.

They found themselves in a forest.

“Wha–?” Fujita mumbled under her breath.

“I suppose we took a wrong turn somewhere”, Valentino uttered.

Fujita let out a small laugh. There had been no turns, they had followed the only road there had been and it made no sense that the tunnel had ended here. They should have ended up in the Presidential Residence. Yet Fujita was glad that the Ensign had gotten back his sense of humour.

The Admiral looked around. The forest was similar to the one she had woken up in when she had first entered this dimension. The trees in the forest were white and the grass and leaves were of a bright green. Fujita could see a clearing a few meters ahead, which was overgrown with tall grasses and red flowers. A sense of peace overcame the Admiral as she became aware of the soft rustles and noises of the wildlife, the universal signal that everything was alright. Had these creatures been startled by any humanoid presence, they would not have been so calm.

“Let’s go”, Fujita said.

“Where to?” Valentino had walked up to the woman and was standing next to her.

“Away from here, first of all.”

“Do you know where we are.”

Fujita shrugged her shoulders. “Not a clue. But everything will be better than were we came from. She started walking, the engineering following in her footsteps.

The two soon entered the clearing. The soil that they walked on, changed into a mucky swamp-like substance, which made it harder for them to walk. However, the bushes which grew on the clearing made for a more solid ground and preventing Fujita and Valentino from being sucked into the mud.

The clearing was only about ten meters wide and about twice as long, and they had soon crossed it. With Fujita still in front, the two entered the forest on the other side, which looked the same as the forest they had crossed earlier. Perhaps even a bit greener.

Suddenly, Fujita heard a branch break. She turned around and came to a stop. Cautiously, she scanned her surroundings for a sign of life. She said nothing. However, she noticed that she no longer heard the wildlife around her.

“Who goes there?” The Admiral called out. Valentine had entered an alert state as well, and was watching the Human woman’s back.

It stayed silent for a few seconds. Then, a man appeared out of the bush. He held up his hands as a sign of surrender. The man was dressed in sober black clothes, covering most of his body. They were made of some kind of leather, airy but resistant. The man wore no accessories, except for the emblem of the Terran Empire on the left side of his chest – the image of Earth with a sword vertically stuck into it.

“Do not be afraid, Admiral. My name is Soterios, I am a friend”, said he Vulcan man that Fujita and Valentino had met in the prison earlier that day.

“You bloody well don’t look like one”, Fujita answered.

The man– Soterios walked closer. “Did I not give you the measures to free yourselves?”

“Well, yes.” The Admiral said.

“Would I do so if I meant to do you harm? “Soterios continued.

“No, logically speaking you would not”, Fujita said with a sharpness in her voice. “But you could have any number of reasons why you would of done that. Maybe you’re forced by the Emperor, maybe you’re just crazy, and maybe you are sincere. I don’t know. But whichever way it is, we don’t have any choice but to trust you, do we? If you’re one of the Emperor, we’re as good as dead anyway, but on the other hand you might be our only way out of here.”

Soterios nodded. “Follow me”, he said, and he continued on the way.

\---

The three had been walking through the forest for about an hour before they finally reached another clearing. This one was much bigger than the first one, with a wooden cabin standing in the middle of the tall grasses that covered the field. While Soterios walked up to the house and climbed its porch, Fujita stopped to look around.

The nature had not changed much since the Admiral and Valentino had started walking. It grown gotten darker, however, and Fujita assumed that sunset was not far off.

The cabin was made of the white wood of the trees that adorned the wildland around Fujita. It was of a medium size and seemed to have one floor. Fujita could see two small windows on the walls of the house that were visible to her, and a black door in the front wall.

Soterios had just opened the door and stepped inside. They he came back out and called the two Starfleet officers. “Come in”, he said, and Valentino and Fujita did as they were told.

The inside of the house was about as sparsely decorated as the outside. There were two rooms, the biggest from which was divided in a sitting room and a kitchen. In the sitting room stood a table with one chair, a pile of old books lay on top of it. Behind the table was a fireplace with a small fire spreading warmth into the building. The kitchen consisted of a stove and some cupboards.

Soterios turned toward the officers. “My apologies, I had not expected to have visitors. Please make yourself comfortable while I find us some more chairs. Would you like a drink?”

“I would rather know where we are and why you brought us here”, Fujita responded.

Soterios looked at her with a face devoid of emotion. “This is my house”, he said. Then he walked away.

Fujita turned toward Valentino.

“Do you trust him?” the Ensign asked her.

“I don’t know”, she said, and she leaned toward the table.

“Maybe we should get out of here.”

Fujita sighed, her mind racing. “That might be safer, but we don’t know what’s going on and besides, it’s getting dark. We might be better off with someone who know this world better than we do.”

Valentino looked unconvinced. “Well–” he started, “he could kill us. He could… be bad. You said yourself that the Emperor might have sent him.” Valentino’s eyes met Fujita’s. “Who is this ‘Emperor’ anyway?”

Fujita stared back at him, but before she could respond, Soterios returned carrying an additional chair.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have more furniture than this”, he said.

“That’s alright”, Fujita uttered. “We won’t be staying long anyway.”

Soterios pulled up an eyebrow. “Oh, but you cannot leave.”

“What?” Valentino beamed. “Fujita, he–”

“Don’t worry”, the Vulcan man continued, “I do not want to keep you here, I do not want to hurt you. However, it is dangerous to be in the forest during the night.”

Fujita nodded. “I’ll give you that. But are we safe here?”

“No”, Soterios answered. “You will not be safe from the Emperor anywhere in this galaxy as long as you are alive. She will find you. The question is how long it will take her.”

\---

Fujita watched as the sun rose up through the bushes and put the tree trunks on fire with its red light. With her fingers she traced the grass she sat upon, aware of every little detail. The birds were waking up and Fujita could hear a beautiful orchestra of chirping sounds. She did not recognize any of the bird calls, but she had not expected to either. This was a strange planet, but a beautiful one at that.

As the Admiral were watching, a dear-like animal wandered onto the clearing, perfectly at peace. Its brown fur looked golden in the early morning sunlight, and its white antlers with brown specks rose almost a meter up into the sky. Its head shot up as it must have heard something, and it darted away again.

It was around five o’clock in the morning, Soterios and Valentino were still asleep. However, Fujita had not been able to get much sleep and had decided she had rested enough. A bit of fresh air and a beautiful sunrise would bode her well.

Fujita had been sitting in that spot for almost an hour, when she started smelling the odour of food. It smelled like bacon and something which was unfamiliar to the Human woman.

After a moment, Fujita stood up and walked into the cabin in which she had spent the night.

“Good morning, Admiral”, Soterios welcomed he once she entered through the cabin doors.

“Morning.” Fujita sat down at one of the chairs in the dining room and watched as Soterios continued cooking.

After the two had been silent for a while, Soterios said: “Valentino is still asleep. You must wake him, breakfast will be ready at any moment.”

Fujita nodded but did not move. There fell another silence, as Fujita was sunken in thoughts.

“Soterios”, she started.

The Vulcan turned around to face her.

“How are you?”

“Who I am does not matter”, Soterios answered, after which his attention returned to his cooking.

“It does”, Fujita uttered. As there came no response, she tried again. “You are a Vulcan, yet you didn’t behave as one when we met. You seem to be helping us, yet you wear the clothes of a Terran soldier. Who– What are you?”

“I’m not Terran.”

“I guessed that. Why else would you be helping us?”

Soterios pulled up a pointed eyebrow. “Do you no longer believe that the Emperor could be controlling me?”

“I never believed that.” Fujita shook her head. “No, not really. I have a feeling for that kind of people, and you don’t seem like one. Too Vulcan, where is the logic in it. So, if you’re not Terran, what are you really doing here?”

Soterios took a moment to lift his frying pan of the furnace and divide the food that he made over three plates. Then he said: “I am from your universe, the Prime Universe. Many years ago, my estimate is 23.43, but this might not be exact, the ship I served on got caught in an anomaly. Our Captain, Edward Sterling, was killed. As first officer, I was the one to take charge and so I did. However, our ship was destroyed as we were pulled into this dimension. Most of my crewmates dies on impact. Those who did not, were killed trying to escape this planet.”

The look in Fujita’s eyes shifted. “You lived here all alone since then?”

“For the most part”, Soterios agreed. “At first I was not alone. However, when more of my crewmates got killed, I sought refuge in this forest. Here I am safe.”

Fujita looked at the Vulcan man with admiration. She knew what it was like to live alone, truly alone. Some people might see it as fleeing, as if Soterios deserted his crew, but a proudness that shone through the man’s old and wrinkled face convinced of the opposite. Fujita found herself in the behaviour of the Starfleet officers that Soterios had described, and she guessed that she would do the exact same thing. Moreover, was that not what she was doing at this exact moment? Trying to escape, to find a way back home? For Soterios to choose to give up on the memory of home and stay behind to honour the memory of his lost crewmates, to tell their story if he would ever find someone willing to listen to it, that was true strength – even for a Vulcan.

It was something that Fujita would be unable to do. She could never stop fighting, not even if it was the right thing to do. The woman was aware of her flaws, but they were also something that made her such a good Starfleet officer. She would never give in and she would not rest until her crew was safe. Yet Soterios had the ability to see the reality if a futile situation and accept it. That there were no no-win scenarios was something that Fujita strongly believed in, but Soterios had chosen not to play the game at all and therefore could not lose.

Sudden footsteps pulled Fujita out of her thoughts. She turned around and saw a sleepy Valentino enter the room.

“Good morning”, he said.

“You’re just in time for breakfast”, Fujita answered.


	9. Chapter 9

SCREAMING FILLED THE SMALL wooden cabin. The clattering sound of weapons and armoury broke through the wooden planks of the hut’s walls and alarmed the three people that were inside.

Fujita shot up. The chair on which she had just been sitting tumbled backward and hit the floor with a thud.

“They found us”, she said, looking at Soterios.

The Vulcan stood up as well. “We must leave through the back”, he said. Then he walked toward the room which had been closed thus far, his own bedroom.

Fujita and Valentino followed the man, and the Admiral saw the door in the back wall of the bedroom. While they walked toward it, she quickly scanned the rest of the room. It was as sparsely decorated as the rest of the room. Inside stood a bed with simple white sheets. A bookcase filled with ancient novels adorned the left wall.

As soon as Soterios reached the door, he opened it and pointed toward the trees in front. “Go, I will follow.”

Fujita looked around at Valentino and started running once she saw that he was right behind her. She dove into the forest at top speed, jumping over trunks on the ground, ducking underneath branches and slaloming between trees.

After a minute or so, Fujita heard the screaming of the Emperor’s guards grow closer.

“They’re onto us!” Valentino called out.

“Just go on”, Fujita said, taking the man by the arm and pulling him in front of him.

As they kept running, Fujita looked behind her. _Where the hell was Soterios?_

Suddenly, Fujita heard a shot and a projectile missed her head by only an inch. It bore into a tree a few meters away, shedding its bark.

“Woah!” Valentino muttered. He stumbled a few meters to the side. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“It missed me, I’m fine.” Fujita took the Ensign by his arm again and dragged him with her. She was panting but she kept running as hard as she could. They had to get away.

Suddenly the realisation hit her that she did not know where Soterios was.

“Bloody hell”, she mumbled, and then she yelled to Valentino, “Keep going!”

Fujita stopped running and turned around, scanning the woods around her for signs of the Vulcan man.

“Fujita!” Valentino yelled back, stopping as well.

“Keep going!”

“No, you can’t stop.”

Fujita turned around. “I have to find Soterios, you have to get out of here.”

“But–”

The Admiral’s eyes bore into the Ensign’s. “That’s an order, sir.”

Valentino looked at her with a stern face. “You can’t court-martial me. We’re in the wrong dimension.”

Fujita sighed. They did not have time for this. She turned her attention back to finding Soterios, and noticed the yelling of the guards getting closer. She made herself ready for a fight.

Then, a man stumbled through the bushes on her right. He seemed to tumble forward but recomposed himself just before he fell.

“Soterios!” Fujita beamed. “Are you okay?”

Suddenly, another shot was fired and a bullet bore into a tree a few meters away from Fujita. The Admiral turned back toward the nearing guards and saw that they had gotten threateningly close.

“We can’t run anymore”, she said.

\---

His hair was blond, incredibly short but its light colour still clearly visible. He wore a blue tunic with the typical Terran golden breastplate which was decorated with a complex pattern of lines. Around his bulky neck hung a necklace made up off molars – human molars.

His light face set with bright blue eyes was one that Fujita knew extremely well. It was the face of Commander Christopher Anderson.

“Well, well, well. Look who we have here”, Anderson said, a bright smile splitting his face in two. He was holding a golden phaser in his right hand, for now pointing it at the floor but Fujita guessed that he would not hesitate to use it.

“I prefer you in my dimension”, Fujita responded.

“That’s not very nice, my gracious.” Anderson pulled up his eyebrows, but his smile did not disappear.

“I know.”

Anderson twisted his mouth. His eyes turned icy cold and Fujita saw something in them that she very much did not like. He looked at her with pure contempt, as if she were an ant that he stepped on.

“You ought to die”, the man said. The words were matter-of-fact-like, but Anderson’s voice was filled with hatred.

Fujita clenched her teeth and forced herself to keep in a rude comeback. This was not the time to make Anderson angry, they had to get out of here alive.

Behind her back, the Admiral signed to Valentino. The Ensign took Soterios by the arm and slowly backed away. Fujita hoped that the doubleganger of her first officer was too focused on her top notice. She stared the Human right in his eyes and tried to think of what to do.

Anderson had brought four guards with him. They were all dressed in the common Terran officer uniform with a silver breastplate that signified a rank that was neither very high nor low. They seemed to be simple soldiers, well trained but no special commando troops.

Three of them were male. Each one had closely cropped hair and a stern face. The one directly on the right from Anderson had a fresh scar on his right cheek that looked quite painful, its red edges looked battered and uncared for. The last of the guard was a woman and she looked the youngest of the bunch. While the men seemed to be in their thirties, she looked more likely to be in her early twenties. She wore her dark hair in a high ponytail and had an impressive gun in her hands.

Fujita was aware of her abilities in hand-to-hand combat that excelled those of most Starfleet officers, even that of most Klingons. It was one of the things she had inherited from her genetically engineered ancestors.

However, Fujita was also very well aware of the four guns that were pointed at her. She held no doubt that they would shoot her at the first movement she made.

Fujita smiled. “What are you gonna do, Mr. Anderson?”

“I advise you not to play games with me, good lady. The Emperor has not ordered me to keep you alive.”

The Admiral pulled up an eyebrow. “You won’t get me alive. You won’t get me at all.”

In a sudden movement, Fujita jumped forward onto Anderson. She managed to work him to the ground just before the guards got to her. The female guard pulled her off her boss and punched her to the ground. She pushed her gun into Fujita’s face.

Fujita smiled and let the woman work her to the ground. She had given Valentino and Soterios the time they would have needed to escape, and now all that rested was keeping these men occupied long enough for she herself to escape.

Fujita kicked her right knee up and hit the female guard right in the stomach. The woman groaned and flung backward, giving Fujita the time to jump back to her feet before she recovered.

By now, the other guards had entered the playing field as well and were running toward Fujita. One of the men pointed his gun at the Human woman and was about to shoot, but Fujita dashed forward and bore her shoulder into the man’s chest, pushing the gun aside. Th two tumbled to the ground and Fujita got a hold of the gun. With all her might, she used it to hit the guard on the side of his head, and the guard’s eyes withdrew in his head as he fell unconscious.

That was one down.

Fujita shot back up and stared right into the blank face of Anderson. Behind her, footsteps were quickly closing in on her and suddenly the deadweight of a human body pushed her to the ground. The third guard pulled the gun from Fujita’s hands as she fell down.

Now Fujita was pinned to the ground face down, two guards holding her down. She could not possibly get them off her, and did not dare to try either since Anderson held a gun pointed right at her.

“You were wrong, my fair lady”, Anderson said. “We did get you. And I find you so annoying that I might just kill you as well. You would make a beautiful addition to my collection.”

One of Anderson’s hands shot up to his necklace and caressed the molars that hung on it. The sight disgusted Fujita and filled her with rage. This man was not only a skilled murderer, he seemed to enjoy it as well. There was no lower for one could sink.

Fujita tried to pry her arms lose, but her futile attempt evoked a grin on Anderson’s face.

“Oh, how I love to see you struggle, my princess”, the man said. “There is nothing like the pretty sight of a tortured soul in a tortured body.”

Suddenly, there came a roar from behind Fujita. Anderson shot up and his face turned to stone. Fujita felt one of the guards’ grip loosen and managed to free one of her arms. She hit the other guard in his face and jumped up, turning around to face the resulting female guard and getting ready for another fight.

Her eyes hit the sight of Soterios running toward Anderson, his arms stretched forward and ready to grab the Terran’s throat. Fujita’s eyes widened as she saw the female guard lifting her gun toward the Vulcan man. Before the woman pulled the trigger, Fujita had started running toward the edge of the forest. The guard that had held on to one of her arms was coming after her, but he was no match to Fujita and he was easily outrun.

Just as Fujita reached the trees, she heard the shot. A body hit the ground. The admiral heard a thud and then nothing but silence. No screaming, no pain. No one was coming after her. Soterios had saved her.


	10. Chapter 10

CHIEF ENGINEER NORA OWEN sat opposite a small and brow-furred alien. The man – at least she assumed he was a man – stared shamelessly right into her face. His tiny black nose was shivering, as if to sniff the air. The man’s pointy ears were tilted toward the Commander.

“ _Kriu. Skef hsafd areiy abuetu_ ”, the alien spoke.

Nora could not understand a single word that the man said, her universal translator had to be broken. Or maybe it did just not work in this dimension.

“ _Keia reiu rebenarui areiy_ ”, the man continued.

“I don’t understand”, Nora said, and she could not prevent a shiver from entering her voice.

“ _Whiu!_ ”

Nora buried her face in her hands. It had been a few days since she had left the presidential residence, she was not sure how many exactly. The emperor had sent her away without giving her the slightest clue as to her captain’s whereabouts and Nora had been trying to find Ramirez ever since. Her efforts had not brought her much, except for a burning hunger and a head that was shot with sleep.

With the greatest effort, Nora lifted her head again. “Ramirez”, she said, “Captain Fernando Ramirez. I need to find him.”

The alien man tilted his head. “ _Azei huwai tuio_.”

“Ramirez, do you know where he is?”

“ _Whiu_.”

Nora sighed and slumped down on the pillow she was sitting on. A few hours ago, she had first entered this village and she had found it inhabited with an alien species that was unknown to her. She assumed that it was this planet’s native species, and that they were greatly oppressed by the Terran Emperor.

The village consisted of about ten small huts made of some kind of clay. Each house was occupied by some four alien creatures, all of which looked very much the same to the commander. Their bodies were animal-like, smaller than a human but bigger than a _Rahizu_ , who they seemed to resemble slightly. They walked on two legs, yet their rear legs were shaped like those of most four-legged Earth mammals. The faces of the aliens were vaguely dog-like, with a pointed snout and pointy ears that stood right up.

As soon as Nora had entered the village, one of these alien creatures had exited his home and token her inside. The inside of the hut was small but cosy, the floor was covered with carpets and the walls were lined with linen. In the middle of the building burned a small fire, and in the roof above it was a hole to let the smoke out. The house consisted of just one room, but it was divided into multiple sections. Furthest from the room lay five beds, next to it hung several instruments that Nora assumed were for cooking. Closer to the door stood some tools from which Nora could not make out the purpose.

Nora and her alien host were sitting on a bed of pillows on the right side of the door, a small wooden table in between them.

“ _Kriu_ ”, the alien tried again.

Nora shook her head. She bit her lip and tried to calm her racing heart.

“ _Kriu. Kriu!_ ”

“I don’t understand!” Nora uttered, louder than she had meant to. “ _Kriu_ , what is _kriu_?”

The alien screeched. Then he pounded on his chest. “ _Kriu!_ ” she said again.

“Are you _Kriu_?” Nora frowned, then she hit her own chest. “Nora”, she said, “I am Nora.”

The alien stuck out his tongue and screeched again. Nora smiled in response, she thought she finally understood something that the alien – Kriu had said. _Alright_ , she thought, _it’s just a name, but it’s something_.

Kriu started talking again. “ _Reoeya weoi uhubu ereiya._ ”

Nora frowned again. “What?” As a sudden wave of headache hit her, she brought her hands up to her face and caressed her forehead.

Kriu reached out to her with one of his tiny hands, softly touching her hands. “ _Whiu._ ”

“I’m alright”, Nora said automatically. Then she smiled inwardly as she realised that she had no idea whether the alien had even asked how she was doing. She was so used to Alix asking her how she was when she came home late every evening, when she had once again missed a dinner and she knew she had disappointed them, and saying that she was alright whether she was or not. She was aware of how she was neglecting their relationship, yet she had not changed her behaviour in months. Now, she wondered if her partner was even still alive.

Suddenly, Nora moaned as a sharp burst of pain shot to her brain. She had to keep herself up with both of her hands on the ground in order to keep herself from passing out, and for a moment her vision blurred.

Kriu jumped up and ran toward the fireplace. After a moment, he returned with something wrapped up in a bright green leaf. The man reached out to Nora again, offering the bundle to the Commander.

Nora took it, and was surprised to feel warmth radiate off the leaf. She folded the package open and saw a brown lump buried inside of it. It was meat. Immediately, Nora put the food into her mouth. She was sure that she had never tasted something so delicious. She moaned again as warmth spread through her starved body.

“Thank you”, she mumbled, her mouth still full.

“ _Jiah_.”

There fell a silence. Kriu sat down again and watched as Nora ate the food. The meat was gone way sooner that Nora liked, but she was grateful for every bite that she had gotten. The Commander had never before been tis hungry.

After a minute or so, Kriu started to croak again. In his hoarse manner he said: “ _Tjubu. Rigua ra mi uesh?_ ”

Nora looked at him and dropped the leaf she was holding. “Yes, that’s right! Ramirez!”

“ _Ramiuesh?_ ”

He had not gotten the pronunciation quite right, but Nora definitely heard the word Ramirez in what Kriu was saying.

“Do you know where he is?”

The alien man looked at Nora with his big dark eyes.

“Uhm”, Nora continued. “Ramirez”, she said, and then she pointed toward the door of the hut. “Where? Where is Ramirez?”

Kriu followed Nora’s hand with his eyes, then lifted his own hand in the same direction. “ _Whiu_ ”, he said.

“Not there?”

Kriu stood up and walked toward the door. Nora followed him, hoping that the man would point her toward where her captain was currently located. However, as soon as the alien had gotten outside, he walked over toward the house opposite of his in the circle in which the buildings in the tiny village stood. There he opened the door and started screeching again.

Another one of the creatures appeared. This one was even smaller, and its skin was of a slightly lighter shade of brown. The aliens seemed identical for the most part, however. Behind him, three more small aliens hit, Nora assumed that they were their children. Or possibly their wives, she had no clue as to how this culture worked. For all she knew, they could even have no genders at all and grow in a cocoon until they were mature.

The hut seemed identical as well, with the same sections and the same tools scattered about. Only the colour combinations of the carpets were different, filled with more green and yellow than the reddish carpets of Kriu had been.

Kriu hit his chest and jumped up and down in the air. The other alien did the same thing. Then they turned toward Nora and hit their chest again. “ _Arhuhi_ ” they said.

Nora hit her own chest just like she had done in Kriu’s hit and spoke her name.

Kriu continued talking. “ _Ramiuesh_ ”, he said.

Arhuhi screeched.

“ _Reoevi dejkri ehuori weoi._ ”

Arhuhi ran out of the hut. Nora watched him go and looked at Kriu. In turn, Kriu looked back at her and pointed at where Arhuhi had left the hut. “ _Ramiuesh_.”


	11. Chapter 11

FUJITA SHOVED ASIDE A few white branches and entered the clearing in front of her. While she brushed away a few loose strands of hair that had fallen into her face, her eyes fell on the small village ahead of her. Ten small round huts were positioned into a circle, their dark contours stood out against the mix of green and white in the background.

Carefully, Fujita walked forward. She gestured for Valentino to follow her. As the two Starfleet officers neared the village, a creature came walking out of one of the houses and turned toward them. They had a brow fur that covered their entire ape-dog-like body. The ears stuck right up into the air, their eyes stared straight at Fujita.

The creature screeched. Then it ran away, out of Fujita’s field of vision.

“What was that?” Valentino muttered.

“More like who”, Fujita responded.

“Right, it’s a ‘who’.”

Fujita shot a look at Valentino and raised her eyebrows. “They’re always ‘whos’.”

Valentino looked uncomfortable and nodded. “Sorry.”

Fujita looked back up and saw the alien reappear. They made a loud high-pitched sound and threw their hands up in the air. The Admiral could not make out what they were saying.

The alien stopped screeching and walked a bit closer to the Starfleet officers. A few meters away from them they stopped again. One of their sleek and hairy arms pointed to something behind him, something in the village.

“ _Ramiuesh!_ ” the alien screamed.

Valentino froze. “What did he say?”

Fujita looked at her companion. “I believe _Ramiuesh_ , or something like that.”

“Oh my God.” Valentino started running toward the alien, first slowly but gradually he sped up.

The alien started running as well, their pace more like a jumping, something a hare would do but on just two legs instead.

Fujita watched her officer go for a moment, confusion filling her mind. Then she went after him and the alien, into the village. She soon caught up with Valentino. When she did, she took him by the arm. “What the hell is going on?”

Valentino looked at the Admiral, his eyes big. “Ramirez. That’s my captain.”

Fujita looked at him with a puzzled look on her face. “Well… follow him”, she said. The two of them started running after the alien, who had continued on their way.

\---

The alien entered the forest on the other side of the clearing. They kept on running for a few meters, then came to a sudden halt. They looked at the two Starfleet officers, their eyes big, and once again pointed into the distance.

Fujita stared past the alien’s hand. She saw nothing at first. The forest was a bond mix of green and white, like it had been before – possibly a little darker. The ground was littered with fallen leaves that had turned brown, almost black. The trees were filled with small red berries, so round and full that they seemed ready to explode.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Valentino looked at Fujita and opened his mouth to speak, but just before he did so, she raised her hand to stop him. She saw something in de distance, barely visible through the tightly packed trees. A figure– no… two figures seemed to be running away from them. One was brown and seemed to be jumping, the other–

“Come on!” Fujita yelled at Valentino, and she sprinted away. She partly turned around and looked at the alien, sending them a small and thankful smile. She did not know who they were, but they sure helped him.

Fujita and Valentino were quickly closing in on the two figures ahead of them. They were not moving fast, as if the one wearing the mustard-and-grey uniform could not go any faster.

“That’s not Ramirez”, Valentino panted once they had a clear sight on the two figures, “that’s– oh my god that’s Commander Owen!”

Fujita looked at the Ensign. “The Chief Engineer?”

Valentino did not answer. “Chief!” he yelled. “Owen!”

The woman in the distance stopped. She turned around. Fujita could not make out her expression, but she saw how the woman lifted her slumped shoulders and could almost feel her relief.

While Commander Nora Owen was waiting for Fujita and her crewmate, the latter two quickened their speed and reached them in a matter of minutes.

Fujita scanned the two people in front of her. The alien looked very similar to the one they had seen before, the same brown fur, sleek snout and pointed cat-like ears. The woman looked absolutely exhausted. Her red hair, once pinned up into a bun, had mostly fallen apart into loose strands. Her troubled face was sleeked with mud – mud and blood; the side of the Commander’s face was covered with a dried brown substance that could be either of the two.

However, even through the fatigue, Fujita saw the confident stance of the woman. At once the Admiral knew that this was a capable young woman.

“What… what are you– You’re alive?” Nora Owen started, directed at Valentino. Then something in her eyes shifted as she realized who Fujita was.

\---

A lone man stood on the red sand, the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks resonated from behind him. Fujita could only just make out his figures against the bright light from the sun that shone into his back. The man’s face was directed toward the Admiral and Valentino, one of his arms rested on something. A wooden pole of some kind. A crutch?

It had been an hour walk from where Fujita and Valentino had met Owen and Arhuhi – as they had found out the alien was called – to this beach. They had slowed their pace because Owen, overcome by exhaustion, had been unable to keep up.

The woman had told her fellow Starfleet officers what had happened since she had left the Presidential Residence. After the Emperor had sent her on her way to find her captain, she had wandered around in the forest for hours to try to figure out what to do. If she would bring Fernando Ramirez to the Emperor, he would surely be killed, but if she didn’t, she was sure that Aelius Valentino would not live to see the next day.

Owen had decided that she would at least try to find Ramirez, what she would do next she would see from there. However, horribly lost, she had found herself back at the Presidential Residence instead of further away from it. It had taken her three days in total to reach the alien village, where she had met first Kriu and then Arhuhi.

Now Arhuhi had brought them to were Ramirez was supposed to reside, and they stood on the hot red sand while watching over the beach, where Ramirez was standing staring back at them.

The man was not moving. He stood stiller than a _markujisha_ on a rainy day, which was a miracle on its own since it did not rain more day one day a year on Buhata, the planet where markujisha lived. Yet Fujita had seen it happen, and Ramirez stood even stiller than that.

The group walked closer to the Captain. A bird flew down onto the sand a few meters away from Ramirez. It picked into the sand with its sleek white beak. It made sudden movement, as if it were startled, and flew back up with a loud scream.

“Stay back”, Fujita ordered her companions. She turned around and looked each of them dead in the eye, even Arhuhi. In turn, each of them stopped walking. Fujita directed herself back toward the man in front of them and put another step closer to him.

A sudden sliver of light hit Fujita’s eyes and blinded her. It disappeared, and with it a man appeared next to Ramirez. Even from this distance, Fujita could see the Captain tremble. She felt the grin of the man next to him more than she saw it, and it scared her. It disgusted her. Even before she recognized the man, an uneasy feeling crept up inside of her and spread all throughout her veins.

This was wrong. This was very wrong. She knew it even before Anderson lifted his knife; even before the shining metal entered Ramirez throat and a beautiful and lively red liquid smeared his skin. She had seen it coming, she must have. How could she not have seen it coming? She had lived with Anderson for the past nine months, she knew the man better than any of her crew. Not this Anderson, of course, but essentially it was still the same man. She must have anticipated that this would happen. Right?

Yet she did not, she could not act before Ramirez’s legs gave out right from underneath him and the man collapsed, the red sand turning even redder. She had not been on time, once she started running, it was already too late. The deed was done.


	12. Chapter 12

ALTHOUGH IT WAS DARK outside and the temperature had dropped to near freezing, Fujita did not want to go inside. She sat on the cold red sand, watching over the waves in front of her that seemed to reach all the way to infinity. Reflected in the water was the distorted images of the immense mass of stars that lighted the night sky. Two moons stood high in the sky, one small and one bigger. A small red planet was visible just underneath the bigger one, surrounded by a big cluster of stars.

Fujita leaned back against the rock behind her and stared at the unfamiliar constellations in the sky. Down near the ocean was a group of small stars that vaguely resembled a horse, on its right some bigger stars that looked like a sword. One lone star stood high up in the black sky, bright like the North Star on Earth.

“Admiral”, a voice behind Fujita said, and the Human turned around.

Behind her stood Nora Owen. “Do I have permission to join you?”

“If you stop being so annoyingly formal”, Fujita said with a smile.

Owen uttered an awkward grin and sat down next to Fujita. “Sorry, force of habit. I don’t meet Admirals every day.”

“Neither do I. Frankly, they’re kind of boring.”

The engineer laughed. “So, the rumours are right.”

“What rumours?”

“That you don’t like being an admiral.”

Fujita glanced at the woman. “Nah, never did much. Desk work isn’t much for me. But at least they leave me to my own decisions like this, no one watching over your shoulder. I think that’s why they promoted me anyway, so they didn’t have to concern themselves with my ‘problematic behaviour’ anymore.” Fujita was reminded of her years of being thrown from ship to ship as ensign. She had not been able to get accustomed to this new world when she had found herself sixty-five years removed from everything she had ever known.

“No that’s not it.” Owen shook her head. “There’s just no way that’s it.”

“What?”

“Admiral– Fujita, excuse me, you’re a living legend. They promoted you because there has never been anyone who deserved admiralty more than you.”

Fujita threw a puzzled look but smiled underneath. “I _was_ kind of an ass though.”

Owen laughed. Then her expression turned dark. “When I first saw the Emperor… I didn’t have the slightest clue what was going on. I thought– I mean who would have ever thought that I’d find myself in the mirror universe, I thought that… The world had gone to shit somehow. Your face– And when I saw you next, I thought I were dead. I didn’t know you were the admiral, I thought it was over.”

Fujita looked down and fiddled with the sand between her legs. “I know, I saw, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“No, no, it’s fine. I mean it’s not your fault that she… How did she anyway?”

“Did she what?”

“Become emperor.”

Fujita sighed. “She’s never not been emperor, really.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ever since that woman was born, it was sure that she would be.” Fujita pulled up a leg and put her arms around it. “That… ambition, confidence. Her aggression. There were only two things she could be; either her or me. And since I’m already me and she lives in this universe, she had to be her.”

Fujita frowned. “A mind like hers, it’s dangerous, it could do anything. And taking her power is even more dangerous than giving it to her. When I first met her, she was the slave of my husband, of James Kirk. The one from this universe, that is. He treated her like absolute shit. Like, the woman, she’s evil, but… Even someone like her does not deserve to be treated like that. He killed her child, he handed it over to the Klingons just ‘cause he thought it was a threat. But he wasn’t the threat, she was. And Jim only fed that. By taking her power from her, he only made her hold onto it more. She was dangerous from the moment she was born, she always wanted power. But ultimately because of him, she felt like she also _needed_ that power, _needed_ to rule the world in order to be scared.”

“Are you saying she’s scared?” Owen looked puzzled.

“Oh no. You’d be crazy to challenge her, she knows that. No, she isn’t scared. She’s power-hungry and Kirk fed that.”

Owen sighed. “Who kills their child, who does that?”

Suddenly, Fujita jumped up. She drew a ragged breath, clenching her fists. “We have to go”, the officer said, a dark tone in her voice. The image of her own daughter appeared before her eyes; Delia, who she had to bury two months before because Fujita had not been able to save her.

The Chief Engineer stood up as well. “Go? Where?”

“Get the others.”

Without waiting for Owen’s answer, Fujita walked away past the hut of Imzah Kishna, where they had been staying after Anderson had transported away, leaving the corpse of Ramirez behind. Imzah had run out when she had heard the screams of Arhuhi, the poor alien had gone wild at the sight of the stone-cold murder. Imzah had token the three Starfleet officers and the alien – which species was called the _Drohai_ as she had told them – inside. The woman had tried to stay strong, but as Owen had asked her about the past days which she had spent with Ramirez, she had not been able to hold back her tears. Fujita had left the house.

Now Fujita left Imzah’s house behind, walking toward the vague light in the distance where the city Araluha was supposed to be. After a few minutes, she heard the footsteps of the others behind her, but she did not wait on them. She was tired, and she was all but in the mood to spend her energy on useless conversation. She wanted to get out of here.

\---

Even though it was the middle of the night once the group had reached Egoluha, most of the houses still had their lights on and the city was bursting with activity. Owen and Valentino looked their eyes out, Fujita tried to take in as much of her surroundings as she could as Imzah let the five of them onward, and Arhuhi stuck to his own business. Why he had not returned to his home yet, none of them knew.

The city itself looked very human. Human building, Human streets, Humans walking around in it. Just not Human materials. The five of them walked on a small corridor between a pair of big flats, which connected to what seemed to be the city’s main street. The street was littered with people, all times of them, walking in the artificial yellow light of street lanterns. Fujita saw men, women, people of unclear gender or androgynous representation, black, white, red. Even a man with skin painted green and long hair dyed purple. All were Human. Not one alien was among the hundreds of people that were outside.

Fujita had never seen anything like it since she had left her home planet. Everywhere in the Federation different species lived together. Earth, originally inhabited by Humans of course, was now populated by an equal number of aliens. Some of them Starfleet officers with Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco as home base, most of them simple citizens. A place with only Humans was more uncommon than a place where it was the other way around. Yet here the Admiral saw just that. And she did not like it. It was not right, it was one of the many signs in this universe of the Terran oppression. Most other alien civilizations where either made to work for the Terrans, or – if they would not give into the authorities – slaughtered.

“Where do you want to go now?” Imzah asked, her sweet voice loud in order to be audible over the noise in the background.

Owen and Valentine looked at Fujita. Arhuhi looked at whatever a Drohai would look at, nut none of the Starfleet officers payed attention to him.

Fujita looked around and thought of their possibilities. Where could they go? They had to get out of this place and quickly, but they had to kind the rest of the crew of the _Green_ first.

“We have to find out if any more of the _Green_ ’s crew are stranded on the planet”, the Admiral answered Imzah’s question. “IS there any place around here where they might have such information?”

“I might know one”, Imzah said. “Follow me.”

They walked through the big street for a few more minutes, pushing themselves through the mass of people and trying not to lose each other. Not that that was hard with Arhuhi who started to scream whenever one of them was about to get lost and acted as a shepherd collecting their sheep.

When they passed a red building that housed some kind of restaurant, the group entered a smaller street. The road was old and worn down from years of usage, the small tiles uneven. On both sides of the street, houses and flats where lined up, seeming to bend over toward anyone who walked between them.

After a few more small passageways, Imzah let the group onto another big street, just a bit smaller than the first one but just as crowded with people. She led them past another few shops and restaurants, where the air was filled with the delicious smells of various types of food. Fujita could not help her belly rumble at the thought of food, she had had nothing to eat since breakfast. But they did not have time to stop.

As Fujita looked around her trying to anticipate where to Imzah was bringing her and the others, something brushed her shoulder. The Admiral looked aside. A man walked away from her, his short hair was blond and a hint of gold was visible underneath his tunic.

_Shit._

Fujita grabbed Imzah by the arm and whispered, “We’ve gotta go somewhere _now_.”

Imzah looked Fujita in the eyes and her face turned a shade whiter when she saw the seriousness in the woman’s expression. “It’s right here”, she said, and she led them into a building.

It was dark inside. It took a few seconds for Fujita’s eyes to get accustomed to the lighting – or lack thereof. The building seemed to be a bar of some kind. Tables, chairs and people with people were scattered around all throughout the sparsely decorated room and each of the barstools behind the counter was filled. A tall and muscular male barkeep was handing out beverages to a group of teenage boys, probably no older than sixteen.

“Where are we?” Fujita asked.

“Just keep walking and pretend you belong here”, Imzah said, lifting her head and straightening her shoulders. Suddenly she looked a lot older than she had before.

The three Starfleet officers did as they were told and followed their guide down a staircase at the far end of the room. The stairs led to a narrow corridor with doors on each side. Imzah walked to the second to last door on the right side and knocked three times, paused, and knocked once more.

The door opened. The dark-haired woman walked inside and gestured for the four others to follow her.

Two men were sitting behind a desk that was filled with computer screens. Images from people and places were projected on the screen, they made no sense to Fujita.

“Imzah! Who the hell are they?” the man in front beamed while he stood up from his chair.

Imzah lifted her hands protectively. “Calm Kyle, they’re with me.”

“Who are they?”

“Friends, love, they’re just some friends and they really need our help.”

The man named Kyle sat back down and crossed his arms. “What do they want?”

Imzah turned around to face Fujita. “Maybe you better do the explaining?”

Fujita nodded and stepped forward. A beam of light hit her face and both Kyle and the other man shot backward with a mixture of shock and fear apparent on their faces, the latter almost falling off his chair.

“What the bearded fuck”, Kyle muttered under his breath.

“Hi”, Fujita stated, token aback by the response of the two men. She should have expected that. “I’m Fujita Diru. _Admiral_ Fujita Diru. From the Prime– the other dimension.” Of course, they would not call the Prime Universe like that here, for them this was the number one universe.

The man in the back looked at Imzah. “You’ve got to be kiddin’…” he said, “where did you dig her up? Are you _sure_ it’s her?”

“Brichal, please hear Fujita out.”

Fujita looked from Kyle to Brichal. “I’m her. I know you’ve got no reason to believe me so you should just trust me. I’m her. I got here to look for the crew of the USS _Green_ , they–”

“We know about that”, Kyle cut the Admiral off.

Fujita raised an eyebrow. If these people knew about the _Green_ , they might also know about her crew. “Do you know where the crew is?” She could not help a flicker of hope sparking up inside of her.

“They were scattered around the planet. Most of them were found and killed by the Emperor.” Kyle turned toward the screens in front of him and pushed some buttons on a control panel below them. An image appeared on one of the screens. It was a map of the area, the nearby towns and cities were marked on it.

“This map shows the Ascania Province.” The man pointed at one of the cities near the coast. “This is where we are now, Egoluha. For as far as we know, six hundred people were stranded on the planet, most of them killed on impact. Their ship crashed here.” Kyle pointed toward another point on the map, on the opposite side of the screen.

Fujita shook her head. “That’s not right. There were at least a thousand people onboard when the _Green_ went missing.”

Kyle looked at the Admiral. “Wherever they went, it’s not this planet. I’m sorry.”

Fujita drew a breath. “Alright, what happened to those six hundred?”

“Only two hundred survived the crash. They spread out throughout the country, but the Emperor soon got word of their existence and hunted them down. Those that were not killed were either imprisoned in the Royal Dungeons in the Presidential Residence or sent to work in the Giuuyja Mines in the Obahuj Province. We believe that no more than five prisoners in the Presidential Residence survived, and twenty of those who were sent to the mines. There were just a few that escaped the Emperor and that psycho sidekick of hers. We don’t know how many exactly but we’re guessing no more than five.” Kyle had pushed another button and a bigger map had appeared that showed Ascania as well as the surrounding provinces. On it, the Presidential Residence and the Giuuyja Mines were marked.

If Fujita had gotten the scale right, the Mines were tens of kilometres away.

“The ones from the Residence, that’s us”, Nora Owen said. “Just us, the others were killed.”

Brichal scoffed. “She’s just a bitch, who does that?”

“Don’t let them hear you”, Kyle said, but he smiled at the comment, nonetheless.

These people were clearly no fan of the Emperor.

“Do you know where the others are, the ones that got away?” Imzah asked.

“No, unfortunately we don’t. Besides Ramirez of course, who’s–”

The woman cut Brichal off. “He’s dead.”

“What?”

“Mr. Flunky killed him.”

“My God what an ass.”

The three Terrans fell silent for a moment, each of them staring at the viewscreen that still showed the map of the surrounding province.

“So, what do you want to do?” Kyle said after a while.

Owen stepped forward. “We need to find the missing people.”

Brichal scoffed again. “My dear girl, and just how were you planning to do that exactly?”

Kyle hit him in the side with his elbow and threw his friend a judging look. In response, Brichal raised his eyebrow in an expression that reflected the man’s expression of what he thought of the entire situation just fine. He did not think they could do it.

“We’re gonna find them”, Fujita added, “whether you help us or not. I assume that’s why Imzah brought us here anyway.”

“That’s right.” Imzah nodded and looked judgingly at the two men. Then she turned her attention to the Admiral. “We’re from the Resistance, if anyone can pull this off, it’s us.”


	13. Chapter 13

DARK ROOMS HIDE THREATS, that is a well-known fact. Dark rooms, basements, graveyards, red balloons. Those are all bad places to be around for the characters in old-fashioned Earth horror movies from the 20th century. Other Federations civilizations did not have these ‘pleasures’, most would not understand the fact that triggering the evolutionary imprinted fight-or-flight response could be considered pleasurable.

The _Krognan_ -poetry from the _Kirians_ seemed to get the closest to this rather vulgar tradition from all Federation cultures. Yet their stories about death, disfiguration and the assassinations of highly placed people certainly possessed the necessary amount fright and blood to be called horror, yet the sense of enjoyment that actual Earth horror could deliver, was lacking. Even Klingons in their brutal nature did not indulge in this type of literature, they did not believe in demons in the way that Humans did. There was no ‘honour’ in brutal murders and a fight with a predetermined ending was not a fight at all if there was nothing to fight for.

Humans, rather fond of their literature and their money, had tried to spread the idea of horror to other civilizations. They had failed miserably. Dark rooms, basements, graveyards, red balloons; those concepts where nothing more than what the words meant in their literal sense. They were not understood beyond planet Earth.

It could be said that horror was even less popular in the Mirror Universe than it was in the Prime Universe, considering the fact that the former was a horror-like setting in itself.

However, Anderson very much enjoyed it. One of his many libraries that were spread throughout the country was filled with nothing but horror novels. He was reading one of them now, lying on his red sofa that was lined with gold leaf in his richly decorated apartment. Athena was feeding him fresh red grapes, as if he was the god instead of her namely ancestor.

“I like those basements”, Anderson said, grape juice drippling down his chin. He grinned. “Those poor little mice are so trapped, so scared, so helpless.”

“Mice?”

Anderson wavered his hand. “Oh, I mean the… the victims, those main people.”

Athena tilted her head, her face emotionless as ever. “The protagonists?”

“Yes those.” Anderson sat up. “Oh, how I hate those miserable young sirs, who would want to be a protagonist? So _boring_!”

“Yes Master.”

“But I simply do adore these books, my princess, I do!” Anderson marvelled. “They give me so many _ideas_. Just think of what I could do to that… that lovely lady Admiral Fujita Diru, that _awful_ lady.”

Athena looked up at her master and blinked. “Did the Emperor not order you to kill her?”

“Oh yes, yes! She did, she did”, Anderson sighed. “But playing with her is so much more fun, so much fun!”

\---

The group entered a building which looked strangely much like any other building that you could find in this street. Imzah walked in first, leading the three Starfleet officers and Arhuhi. Directly after they entered, Imzah went down a staircase which led to locked door. Imzah opened it and they reached a long hallway.

They followed the hallway for a few minutes. It looked simple and ancient, the walls were made of some bleak grey type of metal. Small lamps hung on the ceiling, each a few meters apart. They gave off an eerie green light, so little that you could only see a few meters ahead of you.

After a while, another identical locked door appeared at the end of the corridor. Imzah opened this one as well and let the others into the room behind it.

The hangar behind it was enormous.

“Where are we?” Fujita asked as they looked around.

Everywhere she looked, people were scattered around doing their business. The right side of the hangar was divided into numerous small rooms with glass walls. Inside of them, people were sitting behind control panels and views screens.

In the left half, ten small space shuttles were parked. People were walking around them, busy with cleaning and repairing them.

And all of it was underground.

“This”, Imzah said proudly while she raised her hands, “is our main base. Here we do most of our work and we have our recourses stored.”

“It’s huge!” Valentino uttered, looking his eyes out.

“It sure is”, Imzah nodded. “And it should be, we’ve got hundreds of people working here.

Fujita shook her head. “I never knew the resistance was so big.”

“It’s grown a lot since your Captain Sisko and his Deep Space 9 crew came along. We have people who work here permanently, we set out on missions to sabotage imperial bases. We even have spies now.”

A man walked toward the group. His long black coat wavered around his legs as he walked, and he talked into a device of some kind.

“Imzah!” the man said with a smile. “Can I help you with anything? I assume they are friends?” he nodded toward the three Starfleet officers.

“These are Admiral Fujita Diru, Commander Nora Owen, Ensign Aelius Valentino and Arhuhi – he’s from _Grehga_.” She pointed toward each other as she said their names. Arhuhi started screeching when he heard his name and hit his chest. “Guys, this is Callum Shepherd.”

“Starfleet?” Shepherd asked

“Yes.”

“Curious.”

“So”, Imzah uttered. “We kind of need a ship.”

Shepherd frowned and threw a questioning look at Imzah. “You’re asking for a lot, do you realize that?”

“I do.”

“So, what makes you think I’ll help you.”

Imzah tilted her head and smiled, her long hair fell over her shoulders. “Because she–” the Terran pointed toward Fujita, “Is _Admiral_ Fujita Diru and she’s been the only one to ever kick the Emperor’s ass, so if anyone deserves to have a shuttle and save her people, it’s her.”

Shepherd nodded. “Fair point. Alright, follow me.”

Owen turned to Fujita with a puzzled look on her face. “Are all these people so easy to convince here?” she whispered.

“Yes, we are”, Imzah answered, who apparently heard her, nonetheless. “When you’re part of the Resistance, you need to be quick on your feet, make rapid decisions and use everything you’ve got. In this case, that’s you guys.” She turned toward the Commander and smiled. “For you this means saving your crew, but for us this also means dealing a blow to the Empire. And I, for one, believe that we can do this now you all are here.”

Callum Shepherd led the group toward the parked shuttles.

“These are our babies”, he said looking at each of them in turn. “They are small but swift, strong, and most importantly they’re invincible. They bring us wherever we need to go, and without them we’d be lost. If you just let me clear it with the Boss, I’m sure you can take one. Imzah is his niece after all, he’d do anything for her.” Callum winked at the dark-haired woman.

“Oh, do shut up, I fought for my place in here’, Imzah said. Her words were hard, but she said it with a sincere smile.

The man smiled back and walked away toward the offices in the other half of the building. A few minutes later, he returned, the smile still on his face. He opened his mouth to speak.

Then the building exploded.

\---

Fujita dove behind the shuttle that they had been standing next to, pulling Valentino and Owen with her. She looked around her at the smoke-filled hanger. She could barely see a few meters ahead of her. The entire room was filled with the screams of terrified people, the smell of fire filled Fujita’s nose.

She ran away from behind the shuttle again and tried to orient herself through the chaos around her. In front of the Admiral, Imzah lay on the ground. Shepherd was helping her up.

Fujita drew a breath. She had to find out what had happened. Slowly, she spun around and observed the room further. The smoke was clearing, Fujita could now see that a hole had been blown into the roof of the hangar and moonlight was streaming in. The floor and everything on it underneath the hole was covered in fire. Three of the shuttles were gone entirely, most others were burning or damaged. The room was scattered with people, both alive and dead. Those who had not been killed were helping those who were too hurt to walk.

The Admiral ran toward the closest injured Terran that she could see, a young girl that looked no older than fourteen.

“Are you alright?” she asked, having to yell to get over the screams that were coming from all around her.

The girl nodded, but her eyes were filled with tears and her face was covered in blood.

“Hold on to me”, Fujita continued, and she lifted the girl. She walked her over to one of the offices that had not been damaged in the explosion and lied her down.

Around her, people were doing the same and soon the room was filled with injured people. One man seemed to take the lead and said that he would watch over the wounded.

As Fujita walked back toward where she had been as the explosion had occurred, she felt a soft hand wrap around her neck.

“Finally, we meet again, sweetheart”, the voice of Anderson whispered. “You didn’t even notice me last time, how rude.”

Fujita froze. Adrenaline pumped through her body and she had stop herself from hitting the man right in the face. Or maybe that was exactly what she needed to do.

However, a hand closing off your windpipe makes hitting people slightly complicated, especially when they’re behind you and you cannot turn around. Yet that would not stop Fujita from trying. She threw one of her legs up and hit Anderson right in the nuts. His grip loosened and Fujita pulled herself away from him. Then she finally hit him right in the face. She heard something break and saw blood spray from his nose.

The Admiral could not hide a slight smile as she turned around and ran away.

As Fujita reached the shuttle again, she looked around for her fellow Starfleet officers. She found them helping the victims of the explosion, as a good officer ought to do.

“Valentino!” she called out.

The man lifted his head and saw Fujita gesturing for him to come to her. The Ensign said something to the man that he was standing with and then ran over to Owen. The two of them reached Fujita at the same time as Imzah, who had spotted the woman as well.

“Shit”, Imzah said, and her face was contoured with fear.

“I’m so sorry, Imzah”, Fujita said.

“What? It’s not your fault.”

“But it is”, Fujita shook her head. “I don’t know how Anderson managed to track us down, but he’s been hunting for me right from the start. All of this is my fault. Let me help set this right.”

Now it was Imzah’s turn to shake her head. “The only way you can help us is by getting out of here and saving that crew of yours.”

“No, I can’t–”

“Fujita, go now. Go before he’ll find you again, take this shuttle and get out of here.” Imzah stared Fujita into the eyes with a determined look. “I want you to go. This is our mess, we’ll solve this. This is not even your universe, please find your men and have a good life. You shouldn’t be caught up in all this.”

“How will you manage without this hangar?” Fujita asked.

“We’ll find a way, we always do.”


	14. Chapter 14

THE SHUTTLE _SALAMINIA_ WAS parked in a cave on the south side of the mining complex. Fujita stood outside, overlooking the terrain in front of her. There was nothing but grassland and bush all the way to the horizon on either side of her.

The cave complex was more like a glorified with grass overgrown hill covered in deep holes and craters. The mines started on the north side and stretched kilometres deep into the ground. As Imzah had told them, hundreds of slaves worked into the mines day in day out. They mostly consisted of criminals and the unfortunates that had gotten into the Emperor’s way.

Anderson knew where Fujita and her fellow Starfleet officers were. She was sure of it. The flight here had been eventless, the shuttle was old but worked fine and Fujita was a skilled pilot. However, Fujita could not believe that if Anderson had been able to track them when they were in the hangar, that he could not find them here. It was the only logical place for them to be, after all. Anderson was coming for them. Or awaiting them.

“There is a path around that ridge over there”, Fujita said, pointing in the distance. A few meters ahead of them was a shadow-covered trail. The trees that surrounded it might give them enough cover to get out of the cave unnoticed, if anyone happened to be around here to see them.

The Admiral walked outside, followed by Valentino and Owen. They ran onto the path and hid between the trees. They continued onward and soon they covered the distance between where they had parked the _Salaminia_ and the back entrance to the mines which Kyle had showed them.

The entrance was a simple tunnel, dug out by the slaves and supported by heavy metal framework. It was dark inside. Kyle had told them that it had been abandoned years ago when a new entrance was constructed, but it had never been closed off from the rest of the mining complex.

Carefully, Fujita stepped inside. She turned on the flashlight that she had found in the shuttle. The cave ahead of her was empty except for some rocks that were scattered about. The Admiral signalled for Valentino and Owen to follow her.

The three of them continued down the tunnel. According to Kyle’s map, the shaft would extend for another few hundred meters and then split into two. Within a few minutes, they did indeed reach the junction and entered the left tunnel.

“Can we repeat the plan another time”, Valentino whispered. His voice was shaking, and Fujita reminded herself that he was a young and fresh officer who had likely seen little action.

“Alright”, Fujita said, “According to the spy, the crew is divided into two groups, one will be working in mineshaft 237B, the other will be in their quarters in section G of the main shaft. You and Owen will go to shaft 3A where one guard will be keeping watch, take him down and take his clothes. Then you will go to the quarters of the crew. In exactly sixteen minutes and–”, Fujita checked the time on her tricorder, “–thirty-four seconds, the current guard will leave for the end of his shift one minute early and you will have one minute until the new guard comes in. In that time, you will get the crewmembers out. You will pretend to be the guard taking the slaves down to the shaft where they have their shift that day, but instead you’ll bring them here. Take a turn at the second junction in shaft 6D, the route is on the map gave you. In the meantime, I’ll get the crew out of shaft 237B and bring them here, after which you will take them over and I will try to find another shuttle. We’ll meet back where we parked. If either of us isn’t back within the hour, the others will leave. Clear?”

Valentino nodded and swallowed loudly. “Yes sir.”

Fujita continued onwards, until they reached another junction.

“This is where we part. Good luck.”

\---

Rocks cut into her back as Fujita was slammed tightly against the wall of the cave, her head just around the corner of the junction so she could observe the scene ahead.

One guard was watching over the slaves as they cut their way through the stone with makeshift axes, looking for gold and other valuables. There were about eight slaves, each covered in more dust than lay on the floor of the rest of the cave. They were slumped from exhaustion, bruised and hurt.

Fujita took the phaser that she had gotten from Imzah out of its holster and pointed it toward the guard. It was a good thing that this was one of the furthest removed shafts, no one would hear her.

The man fell to the ground less than a fraction of a second after Fujita fired. He was not dead, of course, even in the Mirror Universe phasers had stun settings.

The men in front of him watched it happen with shock in their eyes, mixed with at the same time a hint of fear and hope. Fujita stepped out of the shadows, and startled eyes became even bigger.

“Oh my god, is this real”, a voice whispered. Then another joined in and soon the mineshaft was filled with relieved voices.

“Calm down please”, Fujita said, urging for silence by raising her hands. “I’m Fujita Diru, as you probably guessed. The _Admiral_ that is. I’ve come to take you away from here.”

Cheers arose from the group, and Fujita had to call for silence once again. “I’m sure you realise that we could be discovered at any moment, please stay calm and do as I say. We’re gonna get out of here, and all of you are going to need to follow me.”

Teary-eyed and smiling faces nodded, and when the entire group had quieted down, Fujita walked back to the shaft from which she had come. The crewmembers of the _Green_ followed here silently.

Since shaft 237B lay on the most outer side of the mining complex, Fujita had been able to plot a route that ran through mostly abandoned tunnels. Within a short while, they reached the junction where the Admiral had left Valentino and Owen. She was surprised that everything had gone so smoothly. It seemed like she was finally in luck.

Fujita turned toward the group of ex-slaves. “Please wait here, two of your friends will be coming to get you in a short while.”

“You found others?” one of the men said.

“Ensign Aelius Valentino and Lieutenant-Commander Nora Owen.”

“Oh my God”, another voice in the back said. “My wife is here? Nora is here? Is she alright?” Their voice was shaking, and Fujita saw them clamping onto one of his fellow crewmates to steady himself.

Fujita smiled. “She’s just fine, she’ll be here soon.” Then she turned her attention to the entire group again. “I have to leave now. Stay calm and whatever happens, don’t leave this place. Everything will be alright.”

Then she ran away, toward the main shaft where the provisions were being kept. Somewhere around there, the space crafts were supposed to be kept. Since there did not fit twenty people in the shuttle that they had gotten from the Resistance, they needed another one and Fujita had taken the job on herself to get it. She ran back through the tunnels, adjusting her footsteps so they made no noise on the gravelly ground and slowing her breath so it could not be heard.

She took a few turns and soon enough she found herself looking over a shaft where a squadron of slaves was working with a guard watching over them. Fujita looked at the slaves. They were not Starfleet, but her instinct told her to free them, nonetheless. She knew that that was not possible; whatever she would do, the Emperor would find those slaves anyhow. Yet there was no problem in creating some chaos.

She stepped out of the shadows, took her phaser and stunned the guard who was just looking in her directing. As she dropped to the ground, Fujita ran past her and the slaves, smiling at them as she went by. She put a finger to her lips to silence the astonished Terrans.

Without another word, she ran out of the tunnel toward the next shaft. There were no further incidents until she reached the main shaft of the mine. With Kyle’s map, Fujita had been able to find a route that avoided all important mineshafts.

Fujita looked out over the big shaft, the only one so far that was properly illuminated. Slaves were scattered about, with guards and minecarts buzzing around them. Everyone looked filthy and tired.

One the far-left side of the tunnel, where a tiny bit of sunlight managed to enter the cave, there seemed to be some trouble going on. One guard – the collar of his uniform was read instead of the dark blue that most other guards wore, Fujita assumed he was of a higher rank than the others – yelled at another man, his arms making wild and angry gestures. His collocutor looked timid, his shoulders slumped down and his hands locked together in front of his body. A dozen other guards ran toward the couple, each of them just as panicky and concerned.

The slaves were getting roused too, looking up toward the guards to find out what was going on. Their own supervisor yelled at them to get them back on their job.

Fujita had come just in time, Valentino's and Owen's stunt had created the perfect diversion. She slipped into the tunnel, careful as to stay in the shadows. She knew that the entrance to the shuttle hangar was outside of the cave, a few meters removed from the main shaft where she was now. She walked past a door to a block of quarters on her left, the screaming guards were now on her right, still too busy to take notice of her. Just a few more meters and she would be outside. Just a few more meters.

“Thought you could run from me”, a voice behind her said.

“Not you again, the Admiral sighed as she turned around.

Anderson plunged at her. Fujita jumped backward. The hand missed her only by an inch. Once Anderson had recollected himself, he came at Fujita again. She grabbed his outstretched wrist and used his own force to turn him around, twisting his arm upward and pushing his body to the ground.

Anderson groaned. “You’ll never win, you know that right? You can’t outrun us. The Emperor is everywhere. _I_ am everywhere.”

She ran anyway, stunning the man as she went. She was gone before he had even as much hit the ground.

\---

Fujita pulled the door shut behind her as she entered a control room of some kind. The room was dark, the only light was coming from one view screen that was left on. Some unfamiliar figures danced on the screen.

Fujita walked to the back end of the room. Behind the locked door, she could still hear the yelling of the guards. Apparently, they had not seen her. Apparently, Anderson had not warned them. He was up to something, and it could not be good.

The Admiral scanned the room, she had gone in here without a plan and had no idea if she could escape from here. Her eye fell on another door in the left corner. She walked toward it and tried the doorknob. It was open. She pushed the big metal door open and looked around it.

Fujita took her flashlight out and turned it on. The staircase behind it seemed to be empty. The walls of the hallway that it led to were made of dirty white plastering, some curious looking scratches and bruises were apparent on them. The corridor looked very different from the rest of the shafts, which had all been made of natural stone and had not had any decorations of any kind. Clearly, there had been put more effort into this hallway.

Fujita considered whether she should go on. She did not know where this hallway led, it seemed to be a basement of some kind and was not on her map. However, there was no point in turning back to where Anderson would be waiting on her anyway. She put a step inside. As nothing happened, she continued walking. After a few meters, she heard something crack behind her. She turned around, but nothing was there. _You’re starting to see ghosts_ , she told herself, and she kept going. However, after a few seconds, the crackling sound returned and Fujita heard something slam against the way. The door? The Admiral turned around again, but she was too far away from the door to see what had happened to it.

As she turned back around to continue walking, Fujita’s flashlight began to flicker. She hit it on her hand, trying to get it to work again the old-fashioned way. The problem with flashlights is that once they stop working, you cannot get them to work again because you need the light of a flashlight to be able see when you repair them, and without a flashlight, well… that can be kind of though. However, the light returned and Fujita told herself not to worry about it any longer. She had to focus on getting out of here.

The tunnel made a ninety degree turn to the left, where it continued onward for a few more meters before the passage was block by another door. This one was locked, but Fujita used the miniature optronic coupler in her combadge to open it.

The door gave way without a problem and Fujita stepped into the hallway behind it. This one looked identical to the first one, there seemed to be no reason for this door whatsoever. Just to be sure, Fujita scanned the space a bit more carefully. Nothing.

Just when Fujita wanted to start walking again, her flashlight gave out for good. “Shit”, she mumbled, and she dropped it onto the ground. No use in carrying useless weight around.

Then the door slammed into the lock. Fujita swirled around, tried to push it open. It was no use. She started running, as fast as she could. The Admiral continued down the corridor for minutes on end, no turn, no doors in within sight. Not that anything was within sight, the room was black, like a Saumarian night sky in the Huprina nebula, which was packed with black purita particles so tightly that even stars shone through it. In other words, pitch-black. The kind of black that made people imagine things that were not there. Or where there?

A scratching sound arose behind Fujita, like nails on a chalkboard, as Humans used to say on Earth centuries ago. The sound seemed to get closer, and the Admiral sped up her pace. Yet the noise kept closing in on her, untroubled by her high speed.

“Boo”, a low voice screeched all of a sudden.

Fujita came to an abrupt stop. This was madness, there was no use in running anymore and she knew it.

“Thought I could not find you, princess?”

Anderson. The devil had been able to track her down once again. Fujita turned around to where she thought the voice was coming from. The trouble was, it sounded like it was coming from all sides. The Admiral strained her eyes but could see nothing but darkness.

“What do you want from me?” Fujita yelled, slowly running around in the dark.

“Do you know that your hair looks just lovely, messed up like that after a long day of being chased by certain death?”

Oh, Fujita could not stand this man. He was scary alright, but so cliché. Yet, something told her that this was not just a random comment. He could see her, but how? “What do you want”, she said again, more pressingly this time.

“You.”

The Human woman scoffed. “As a friend of mine once said, ‘I don’t like bullies, I don’t like threats and I don’t like you. Now I advise that you let me go.”

Fujita started to walk away, but as she did, she felt a hand close in around her neck. A cold, metal-like hand that slowly started to choke her.

Something was off, this hand… it was not human.

“What are you?” Fujita managed to whisper, having to make an effort to push air out of her strained throat.

“Now, now, that’s not how good girls play”, Anderson’s voice pouted.

Fujita balled her fist. This man was irritating the hell out of her. She lay her other good hand on the hand that was holding her throat. She felt the sleek metal of the hand and the icy, lifeless cold that radiated off it, and slid down toward the wrist. Then she grabbed onto it with all her might and pushed whatever was behind her forward, bending her own body downward in order to slam it over her on the ground.

There was nothing. Nothing but the hand that was holding on to her. Its grip was getting tighter with the minute, Fujita could barely breathe. She had to get the hand off, and quickly.

Fujita mined raced, and in a hunch she grabbed her combadge and the optronic coupler, removed the casting and rigged some circuits. Then she attached it to the hand and induced a shock strong enough as to shut down any mechanism.

The hand let go and Fujita fell to the ground, electricity running through her body. She felt her senses go numb and her muscles get paralysed. Her body did not like it, but the woman knew that it was only temporary. Within seconds, she jumped back onto her legs, first wobbly but then steady enough to continue on running.

And run she did.


	15. Chapter 15

FUJITA FELT ALL EYES fall on her as she exited the stolen shuttle. After escaping from Anderson and the metal hand, she had managed to exit the tunnel and had found her way to the shuttle hangar, where she had rigged one of the crafts and had flown in over to where they had parked the _Salaminia_.

Valentino ran outside to greet her. “You’re back!”

Fujita got straight to business. “Divide them over the shuttles, let’s get out of here.” Ten people in each shuttle would be crowded, but it was doable.

“Fujita”, Valentino fell in, “You better come with me.”

“What’s going on?”

Fujita walked into the cave with the Ensign. The ex-slaves were scattered about, resting against the wall of the shaft and tending to the few who had minor injuries.

A man in the back turned his head toward the Admiral. “Captain”, his strained voice said.

It was Anderson. _Her_ Anderson.

Fujita felt a wave of worry rush through her and sprinted toward her first officer. “What the hell are you doing here?” As she kneeled next to him, her eye fell on his blood-soaked uniform. “You’re injured!”

“It’s fine, Owen tended to it.” He drew a ragged breath and lay one of his hands on that of Fujita. “It’s good to see you again.”

Fujita did not pull back but looked over her shoulder to Owen. The woman shook her head. Anderson was not fine.

“Let’s get you into a shuttle”, Fujita said. She took his hand in hers and let his arm rest over her shoulder. Together, they stood up; she slowly, he with a groan. They limped to the shuttle which Fujita had stolen and went inside. The Admiral put her first officer down on the second pilot seat and sat down on the other seat herself while the crew of the _Green_ streamed in.

Once everyone was inside, Fujita ordered for the door to be closed and switched on the craft’s engines. She turned on the communicators and hailed the _Salaminia_.

After a few seconds, Commander Owen’s mechanical voice came through. “We’re ready, sir.”

“Engage engines, let’s get out of here.”

The plan was to fly the two shuttles to a forest a few kilometres away from the mines. The place was in the middle of nowhere and it should take Anderson a while to track them down. While they were there, they had to find a way to get out of this dimension and back into their own.

The flight to the forest was uneventful. Both ships, despite their ripe age, were in a good state and were easy to fly. It only took the Starfleet officers a few minutes to get to the spot where they would set themselves down again.

Once they had arrived, Owen and Valentino exited their shuttle and walked over to Fujita and Anderson. The Admiral ordered her passengers to leave for the time being. The four engineers – officially Anderson was a science officer, but he had enough experience, considering that he had been able to create his own AI Athena among other gadgets – needed some quit to work.

“What’s the plan?” Valentino asked.

Fujita looked around the group. “Multidimensional transporter devices exist, we know they do, we just don’t have any. You all know Starfleet’s banned them; they’re dangerous, we shouldn’t have any. But we need them now. I’ve seen one aboard Deep Space 9, Captain Sisko got it when Mirror Miles O’Brien got onboard. I managed to sneak a quick look at it, I hope long enough to be able to rebuild one.” The Admiral was known for having a near infallible photographic memory – when she taught at Starfleet Academy, she could draw engine designs on the board in a matter of seconds – yet no one could be expected to remember something without having had a proper look at it.

“What do we need?” Owen asked.

Fujita frowned, sunken in thoughts. “A matter-energy converter, targeting scanners, emitter array – I suppose we’ll have to make do without a pattern buffer and a biofilter – an annular confinement beam, a gravitational compensator and a Heisenberg compensator, molecular imaging scanners, a inducer module, materializers, a particle locker, a phase discriminator, inducer and transitioning coil, primary energizing coils as well, and some sort of rematerialization subroutine. Now that’s only for the transporting part of course, and I’m guessing we can get most of them out of these ships’ transporters. But we also need–” Fujita bit her lip as she tried to remember the necessary components, “–a subspace manipulation subroutine, dimensional shift discriminators, a double subatomic microtensator and some spacetime phase lockers.”

Owen whistled. “That’s quite a list, I doubt we’ll be able to find _that_ in these ships. They’re not Starfleet after all, and I don’t even think that _my_ ship has a double subatomic microtensator.”

“Not so pessimistic, milady”, Anderson cut in. “We’ll find it, and if we can’t, we’ll just have to make it.”

Fujita smiled. It was good to see Chris again.

“Alright chaps”, Anderson continued, “What we need is some isolinear chip and rods and microtape, optronic fibre, a hyper spanner and an optronic phase modulator. Get me some, STAT.”

Owen and Valentino rushed to the back of the shuttle and removed the plating. They pulled out some parts and devices and retrieved a toolbox.

“What the hell are you doing here”, Fujita asked while the engineers were working.

“I could ask you the same question.”

“I think I’d give you the same answer as you would.”

“Then don’t ask.”

Neither of them knew how they had gotten here. One moment they had been standing on the Bridge of the _Starlight_ , the next they were in another dimension.

“I spoke with the Emperor”, Fujita said.

“Anderson pulled up an eyebrow. “How’s the fair lady?”

“Fair lady my ass. You’re horrible you know.” The Admiral laughed, then the stern look returned to her face. “And so is she. She maintained the notion that all of this was none of her doing. I believe her, I think she thinks that we came here to threaten here reign.”

“We didn’t even know about her reign.”

“Yup. But she did not know _that_.”

Anderson nodded. “I hope you kicked her.”

“I did. Multiple times.”

“So how am I in this universe?”

“Same old money obsessed bastard.” Fujita grinned.

With a laugh, Anderson responded, “You take that back, Captain.”

They fell silent for a moment and watched their fellow officers gather a knotted string of optronic fibres.

“So, what happened to you?”

Anderson sighed. “I didn’t choose the best place to enter this universe. I landed right in the middle of this mine.”

“And you didn’t even try to buy it?”

Anderson laughed. “I did. They didn’t accept my offer.”

Fujita threw a stealth look at her friend and knew that he was not joking. Knowing him, he would actually have made a bid on this place.

At that moment, Owen jumped up and called out, “Got it!”

The two _Green_ engineers walked back to Anderson and Fujita and handed over the tools which they had collected. Within no time and with bound forces, Fujita and her first officer had two make-shift multidimensional transporting devices working.

Something outside made a loud crashing noise. Fujita, who had just come outside to get the crewmembers to return to the ship, ran around the shuttle to the entrance of the cave to see what was going on.

Her disgusted eye caught the sight of First Minister Anderson walking toward them. “not again”, she muttered under her breath, and her eyes widened as she saw who was walking next to the counterpart of her first officer.

She recognized the messy brown hair that was put up into a high ponytail, the smooth slightly tanned skin, the brown eyes with their golden specks. It was the spotting image of herself; the Emperor of the Terran Empire.

The woman walked toward the Admiral wearing the biggest smile known to mankind. “We meet again.”

“How pleasant.”

“You’re not leaving this place; you do know that, right?”

Fujita walked toward the woman, stopping right in front of her and looking her doubleganger in the eye. “There you’re wrong. We will get out of here, we’ll get home and we’ll leave you and that little pest of yours alone.” She set a step backward. “We didn’t come here to threaten your reign.”

The Emperor threw her head back and laughed. “Do you hear this woman? She comes here in my empire, in my _dimension_ , and she says that she’s _not_ here to threaten me. Then why the hell are you here?”

Fujita looked at her doubleganger. She had come to the Emperor thinking that her presence on this planet was her doing, but found out that she had had nothing to do with it. In all honesty, the Admiral had no idea how she had gotten here. And she did not like the feeling of not knowing. “I don’t know.”

“Ha! She doesn’t know. Admiral Fujita Diru doesn’t know! Well, I do. You’ve come here to terrorize my reign. You realized the sweetness of power and now want it for yourself.”

Fujita scoffed. “The sweetness of power, right. What you have, Emperor, it might be power, but it is by no sense sweet. Your citizens fear you, you fear them; you fear everything because anyone could try to kill you. That’s no life, and that’s definitely not sweet. No, I haven’t come here to threaten your reign.”

“Those bloody Agaecii sent you, didn’t they?”

Fujita frowned and could not keep a look of shock appear on her face. The Agaecii? How could the Emperor know them?

“I knew it!”, Fujita’s doubleganger continued. “They did send you, they sent you to take over my empire!”

“You’ve met the Agaecii?”

“Yes, those bloody dimension-shifters have been after my beautiful empire for years. They probably realized that they could not have it and sent you instead. Serves you right to be working with those lil–”

Fujita looked at Anderson – her version of the two. _Dimension-shifters?_ Suddenly, everything fell into place, and she knew that her first officer saw it too. There goes a lot of energy into sifting between dimensions, but if one has the ability to generate that power themselves, the same amount energy can be won with it; like the balancing act between the utilization of oxygen and carbon dioxide by life on Earth. That power can in turn be used for– well for everything, just like dilithium crystals can be used to power and solar energy to power machines on planets. Starfleet had found out that the Agaecii travel through or perhaps live in subspace. In order to do so, an enormous amount of energy is needed. Such energy per definition leaves traces, and Starfleet had not been able to find any wherever the Agaecii had been. The only way which that was possible, was if they generated the necessary power themselves.

And that meant that the Agaecii got their power from sending things – or people – from dimension to dimension.

“The Agaecii did sent me here, yes, but not because I wanted to.”

The Emperor frowned. She was misguided, but not stupid. Someone with so much power could not be stupid.

“What do you know about them?” Fujita continued. “About the Agaecii?”

“I’m not gonna tell _you_ that.”

“Bloody hell, would you just quit being so stupid? I’m trying to help you here!”

The Emperor scoffed and looked at her sidekick. “the vermin wants to help me. Have you ever heard something more ridiculous?”

“How are you even still emperor? Don’t you get that the way that you rule this empire doesn’t work?”

“It’s the only way.”

Fujita threw her hands up into the air in anger. She could not possibly understand the Emperor’s way of thinking. “No, it is not”, she said, disbelieve in her voice. “Look at us, at the Federation. We’re a democracy, we’re a free civilization; and it works! People are happy, they’re content with their government. Everyone gets their say; and we don’t need trivial thing like money, we don’t need to supress anyone or usurp their rights because we believe that we are ‘better’ or more deserving. It works! We’re not weak, like you might believe. We are strong _because_ we are content with our state, we _want_ to fight for it, instead of being forced to do so. Haven’t you seen what has happened to your empire before? It didn’t thrive, it wasn’t beautiful; your own people kicked out your past government, because they did not agree with you. Oppression will never win, because oppression encourages rebellion and in the end rebellion _will_ win. _Hope_ is stronger than hatred. The occupier will never win, because the country is not really theirs, and the inhabitants will fight for their right. Fear doesn’t make you strong, it does the exact opposite. It weakens you, because you have support. Fear might temporarily paralyze, but at the first chance, rebellion will be born.”

“Alright, I’m done talking.” The Emperor made a hand gesture to the First Officer, who stepped forward. He walked past the Admiral and the First Officer, toward the _Salaminia_.

Commander Anderson sprinted after his doubleganger. “Get inside!” he yelled at the waiting officers.

As Fujita wanted to go after them as well, the Emperor grabbed her arms and pulled her toward her, the Admiral’s back against her. “You’re not going anywhere”, the Terran whispered in her ear.

Fujita tried to pull herself free, but failed. The Emperor pulled her even closer and put one arm around her neck, attempting to strangle the Admiral.

In the meantime, both Andersons had reached the shuttles inside of the cave. The First Officer was urging the Starfleet officers to get inside the shuttles, while the Emperor’s sidekick pulled a gun from his pocket.

Fujita tried to pull herself out of the Emperor’s grip again and kicked up her leg. She hit the woman right where it hurt and managed to break free as the Terran slightly released her. In the split-second that it took for the Emperor to recompose herself, Fujita struck her right on the head. The Emperor stumbled backwards and collapsed onto the ground.

“That’s no way to rule an Empire”, Fujita said. “You will shove it into the ground with your own hands.” Then she sprinted after her First Officer.

The Terran Anderson had started shooting, and the First Officer threw himself onto the man and shoved him against a wall, pushing his arms upwards. The First Minister kicked his knee up into the Human’s stomach, after which the latter stumbled backward. The Terran aimed his gun again and shot one of the crewmembers of the _Green_.

Fujita had reached the shuttles and shouted at the Starfleet officers to get into Owen’s shuttle. When she saw the man that Anderson had shot drop on the ground, she ran toward him. However, as she was running, the Terran aimed for her and Fujita had to throw herself onto the ground to dodge the fire. When she looked up, she saw that the other man was dead. Anderson had killed him.

 _Dammit_ , Fujita thought as she crawled back up. By now, her Anderson had gotten a hold of his counterpart again, who had stopped shooting. The Admiral saw that most of the ex-slaves had gotten into the _Salaminia_ , as she had ordered them to do. Two others lay injured on the ground. She wanted them in one place, and not scattered over two shuttles, even though the _Salaminia_ was technically not equipped to care this big a number of passengers.

Fujita ran toward the _Salaminia_. “Go inside!” she yelled at the two engineers that were still standing outside.

“What are you gonna do?” Owen asked, her voice trembling slightly but sounding determined, nonetheless.

“Get inside”, Fujita repeated, and the Commander and Valentino did as she said. Once everyone was inside, Fujita stuck one of the multidimensional transport devices onto the ship’s hull and activated it.

The ship disappeared.

Fujita turned back toward the two fighting Anderson’s. In the corner of her eye, she saw the Emperor standing up.

“Anderson!” the Admiral screamed.

Her First Officer let go of his adversary and ran. He ran toward Fujita, while the Emperor closed in on the both of them as well. The First Minister recollected himself and aimed his phaser at Fujita. Then he changed his mind and aimed at the shuttle’s engines, after which he fired. Fujita reached out to her First Officer, pulled him inside and activated the transporter.


	16. Chapter 16

“COMPUTER, END LOG.”

Fujita looked at the star-filled space outside the viewscreen of the shuttle. The same star-filled space as she had been staring at for since yesterday evening. She was not one to easily give up, but right now she did not see any way out. The Admiral had sent a distress call out the moment that they had entered this system. But no one – not even the _Salaminia_ – had answered it. They had not heard from the _Salaminia_ at all since the dimensional shift.

Some time ago, Fujita had brought the passed-out Anderson to a biobed in the back of the shuttle and had changed his bandages. The wound was severe and the bleeding would not stop; the man needed surgery within the day to have any chance of survival.

Fujita tried to think of what to do, but her mind was a blur from exhaustion. She ran through the ship’s status one more time and came to the same conclusion as last time: the shuttle was deprived of power and emergency rations and life support would be good for no more than four days. There was nothing they could do except wait to be found.

Fujita felt herself grow weary, and for a moment – just a moment – she gave in to her exhaustion.

\---

Fujita shot up. It took her a moment to orient herself, as the blackness outside had been replaced by a slab of musky green. The silence was broken by a cracking sound that came from the shuttle’s communications system.

Fujita drew a breath. Had they–?

Then a dark voice spoke, sounding more like the shadow of a voice than a voice itself, in a way similar to shadows being the absence of light. “ _The human discovered us_ ”, it croaked.

Discovered; not in the way of having found them for the first time, more of having _understood_ them for the first time. The word – if any emotion could be heard through it all – sounded angry.

Fujita did not respond, she wanted the Agaeci to speak. However, before it could continue, the Admiral saw a beam of light hit the hull of the Romulan ship in front of her. A phaser. A _Starfleet_ phaser.

The warbird started moving away from the shuttle, making space for the starship to enter the Fujita’s line of view. Through phaser shots, the Admiral was able to see the contours of a sleek white starship, and she recognized it immediately. It was her _Starlight_. She could not help but smile at the sight of her home and her family.

The Romulan vessel and the _Starlight_ were caught up in a heavy fire fight. All Fujita could do was watch while her crew was being hurt. The _Starlight_ managed to blow off part of the warbird’s starboard hull, but in turn the Romulan ship destroyed one of the Starfleet ship’s nacelles. Next, the _Starflight_ made the Tekoyua manoeuvre and managed to close in on the warbird from behind, taking out its weaponry systems. The warbird tried to get away, but they could not shake the _Starlight_ off their tale.

Suddenly, the warship disappeared, leaving the _Starlight_ alone on the battlefield. Fujita sighed. The Agaecii would without a doubt be back, but for now they were probably in some far away dimension, and her ship and its crew were safe.

“ _USS_ Starlight _to the unidentified shuttle_ ”, Fujita’s second officer B.J.’s voice sounded through the communicator.

“Diru here”, Fujita answered, a smile apparent on her face. She had ever been so glad to hear her Chief Security’s voice.

A moment of silence followed, in which B.J. was likely too surprised to speak. Then a row of cheers broke out.


End file.
